I think it’s more that she’s *just* an asshole. Like, a lot of the other assholes are also threats in some way or another, meanwhile thus far her bark has had no real bite to it, even when she has wanted it to. She’s just a petty bully, and frankly kind of pathetic. She can’t actually *do* anything, because she does not wield any power, and attempting to act without power would go against her ego and self-image, so she won’t stoop to that, making her utterly toothless.
A classic villain opposes the protagonist openly and creates surmountable problems, often made easier when they are revealed. A great villain works in shadow. Their involvement is never obvious or provable. They don’t end lives; they destroy them.
My point is that villain and antagonist aren’t the same thing. Raidah is not a villain. Raidah holds grudges, she has ambitions, she has an immature attitude towards networking, she’s a jerk. These are all kind of ordinary, and things the protagonists in this story do too. They are not villainous, cape or not. If this antagonist is a villain, then our protagonists are greater villains.
Very real and true! I think bare minimum I’ll just be grateful if Raidah is given more nuance and things to do even if she stays a noxious antagonistic force the entire time, but in all ways forever and ever I’m always secretly rooting for Raidah to have an MJF style face turn.
I am also on this train! Raidah has a lot of unexplored potential, both to continue being kind of awful OR to change and turn face! As much as her last appearance I rolled my eyes pretty hard at her being the messenger, even as she was correct, I can’t say I’m ever tired of seeing Raidah, she’s interesting even when she’s nasty!
i do have a “what happens next” style amber icon that used to be my go-to, but this current one is just a sketch i did when i borrowed someone else’s ipad for a few hours to futz around with procreate
Oh yeah, totes! With the exception of one photo edit I did, most of my gravitar icons are just DOA fanart I’ve made throughout the years, albeit with most of them either not being published online or slightly altered to be better suited for a profile icon.
It’s a lovely picture, and the caption and her expression made something click for me. I have an idea why she seems to have something against Dorothy more than just “In Sarah and Joyce’s orbit”.
I think that’s the thing when you say something positive, then negative, then positive to lessen the impact of the negative statement, making it easier to be accepted.
Yes and then the joke is that the comment section today is gonna be a lot of mayo
aka white people like me being in our feelings about Asma and Raidah not being super nice to Joyce and Dorothy.
I THINK today we might be mostly on Asma and Raidah’s side, either bc we agree kissing at the protest being the front page story is BS, or bc we’re (as a group) more annoyed right now with the two of them generally…
But we (as a group) haven’t historically been great about the brown women in this comic being anything other than saccharinely pleasant. Like that is just a very true statement that you can verify for yourself by checking past comment sections. Doesn’t need to involve any conscious feelings, and Raidah at least IS an antagonist (unlike Asma and Roz and Lucy and…), but it’s a noticeable pattern.
I think Roz is kind of an antagonist. Not to the degree of Raidah or the actual-really-bad antagonists, but she’s shown being in the wrong or mildly humiliated several times, and she’s — until quite recently — been at odds with the only cast who really interact with her, Joyce and Dorothy.
Eh… she was only really directly an antagonist for Dorothy in her bid to become RA. I think it’s otherwise a stretch. Joyce and Joe even went to her for help in their most recent interactions!
Also, I think this might literally be the only instance of Raidah being onscreen and not being actively caustic, backhanded, or otherwise terrible. This is our only instance of her being a normal human being, reacting appropriately to Daisy’s Whackfoolery.
As far as I can tell, Raidah’s introduction to Sarah back in her flashback might also count. (Pre-Dana fallout of course)
She seems genuinely friendly and her commodifying/social climbing tendencies don’t seem to be present. Hell, she befriends Sarah and gives her solid advice, even though there’s not really anything Sarah can do for her socially.
Nah Raidah has a few strips where she’s fine. People just forget them, because they want to despise her. Raidah is a reasonable person she’s just a bit mean. Frankly this entire comment is probably closer to her than say Joyce
Look i have mild face blindness and terrible memory if i don’t see you and hear your at least semi regularly i am not gonna remenber your name. Unless uou arw a teacher in that case i am NEVER going to remenber your nsme or your face.
Actual full agreement. I can remember a person by sound and face, but name? Haaaaaaa nooooo. The times I’ve had to start a convo as “Hi, I remember i know you from X place with Y people, but I am atrocious with names, we bonded over our opinion for Z thing. Can I get your name again please?” so many nickles…
I have an uncle that is bassically a running joke with me that i can’t remember his name anytime i see him. (He separated from my aunt so i would pretty rarely see him so he just did not stick in my memory)
Ditto. I have the autism problem where my brain doesnt stop looking for connections, so instead of not recognising anyone, I recognise them everywhere even where they’re not. Unless someone has a really unique feature or I see them all the time I can’t tell whether or not someone with the same skin colour and face shape is them or not.
Word recall is also an issue, so even if I know someone’s name my brain doesn’t always recall it when I need it, or will substitute something with a weird connection (like if someone’s name is Jennifer I might think it’s Rachel because of the actor/character on friends).
I will probably remember your name. I will likely recognize your face. Without constant repetition, the two will not link to each other. As far as I know, I can’t blame autism.
Ive managed more than twice to go “urgh what is this guy doing” and only realising once theyre a meter from me that, oh, that was my dad. Last time was at the party the day before his wedding and my cousins thought i was joking whenni questioned why this guy was running from the other house to crash the party.
Now i at least have a TIA to blame for my brain being fuzzy, ive had several relatives i havent recognised and when realising im asking the name of someone ive known my whole life i want to bury myself in a hole
i literally cannot remember names to save my literal life. if i don’t read your name off a card and make an active conscious effort to memorize it i won’t remember it at all…
I misread that as names or feces and was very briefly concerned for why anyone *would* remember somebody by their feces until I realized that first e was an a
I am a cashier who winds up remembering quite a few peoples’ names and faces. Maybe due to that, I have a hard time getting what makes Asma so difficult, unless it’s just “this is a person performing a service, let me treat them more like set dressing than anything else”.
Most people just don’t read the name tags of employees. I don’t think it’s because we see them as lesser (most of the time) but it’s just the sort of things that easily slip from your mind.
There’s also the fact that a lot of memory is context based, so there could easily be important information about someone, like their name, that gets locked to a specific context, so even if you recognize them when encountered outside of that context, you might not remember everything that matters, like their name.
Plus, most of the time when they are interacting with Asma, their focus isn’t on Asma, it’s on the function she is providing, which is to give them their mail. It isn’t really about dehumanizing people in service roles (for most people anyway, some people do indeed suck like that unfortunately) so much as socializing just not being where your attention lies when dealing with them.
I’m a delivery driver, I know a lot of people by their home address rather than their name or face. I might know the name associated with their address, I might know the face associated with their address, but broadly speaking I am more likely to know who someone is if I am informed of their address, at least within Bloomington. This has lead to some awkward moments where I’ve had to stop myself from blurting out somebody’s home address when meeting them in a different context, and some seriously awkward tinder matches where I’ve had to find delicate ways to suggest they replace one of their profile pictures because they inadvertently doxxed themselves by taking the pic on their porch with the house numbers visible because there’s only one street they could live on with a door like that, meaning their full home address is effectively visible on their tinder and I presume most women wouldn’t want that.
When I briefly worked for a pizza place, there were a number of regular customers that we knew by their orders rather than their names or faces. I’m sure there are plenty of equivalents in other professions as well.
It’s not just customers dehumanizing service workers, it goes both ways, because it’s rarely a malicious act and comes as a result of memory being reliant on attention, and when providing a service or having a service provided, your attention is generally on the service, not the person on the other end of it.
This is all kind of weird to me. It’s been a long time since I worked any kind of customer facing retail job, but when I did the last thing I cared about was even repeat customers remembering my name. Honestly weirded me out more if they did.
Obviously, be nice, be polite, don’t be an asshole, but it’s a job, not a social engagement.
She is a student, but she doesn’t live on the same floor with our main characters and doesn’t seem to share any classes with them. Aside from her job, she’s essentially a stranger to them.
“Oh no, humanity is sus!” does bring it round to making it funnier.
People with memory issues just encounter a LOT of negativity, so it doesn’t hit the same or feel like a joke, and it’s good to educate against biases that cause us harm, is all.
I knew what you were doing but I would NOT be surprised if this was something a real person had genuinely suggested on YouTube or TikTok. There’s a booming grift-y business in convincing your audience that every single thing that’s ever made them even briefly unhappy is actually a red flag for abusers.
(Even as I was typing that out, I had to admit to myself that this is also how right-wing douchebags would characterize trigger warnings (generally) and “not wanting to put up with being misgendered”, but I’m talking about the specific type of influencer who peddles a worldview where friendship = agreeing with you about everything and never trying to discourage even blatant self-harm.)
I’m dyslexic, and can’t remember names well. As in, I will find a void where the name should be. I then must stare into the void, and it does stare back.
In with the neurodivergent name/face recall struggles. I have afansia too (no visualisation), which does not help.
And I work on reception at times too! – you really realise how bad your face recall is when you are scared of greeting your colleagues for the first half a year there, because your brain subconsciously works by categorising people into fuzzy piles of “Brown hair, medium build [4]” and “blonde with glasses [2]”, no matter how hard you’ve tried to remember.
I am semi-okay with faces, but whenever make up and hair trends get too uniform in an area, it spells my doom. I can’t even tell people apart by hair color when everyone is sporting the same three looks.
I used to be really good at it, but dude I’m over 60 and had like two dozen strokes last year. Besides being lucky to be on this side of the soil, I’m lucky if I remember my own name.
glad you have made it through them, lost my grandmother 10 years before she passed to a stroke paraylizing her entire left side, and completely messing with her memory abilities.
I’m gonna be real with you, if you’re talking about this… it’s some real selective reading to take from that article that the writer, much less the game he contributed to, is pro-Israel.
Do people actually come away from TLOU or TLOU2 thinking “Joel and Ellie sure are righteous people killing only the deserving”, because that is some WILD protagonist-centered morality right there, JFC. The game could not be any more blatant without stopping dead to look you, the player, directly in the eye and saying, “By the way, the main character is doing the wrong thing.”
Talking about things the writer has said over time, importantly including that talking about I/P as “cycles of violence” is too simplistic, and making good points about OTHER groups in the game and how they fit in or don’t.
(I don’t like everything he says! He’s said some Things. But this still feels like the internet playing a game of telephone. If you’re going to judge him or the game, do it based on what he’s actually said and what the game actually contains instead of what Twitter’s told you he said and what Twitter’s told you the game contains.)
They were all terrible people who did a lot of messed up things to survive, and some messed up things in general.
But Joel, was the previous game’s protagonist, so he was “our” terrible person.
And the only reason he was able to make Ellie a “worse person over time” is because he saved her life from a surgery she was unable to consent to for an experiment that would probably fail even by the game’s logic (pretty sure you can find audio logs from the doctor about previous failed attempts with other immune people) and would definitely fail in reality (unless I’m mistaken in believing you can’t create a vaccine for a fungus).
Admittedly, Joel didn’t know the odds of success, and would probably do the same thing even if Ellie did consent, because, as you said, he was a terrible person.
Regardless, I know I didn’t get any Zionist message from the game, but it wouldn’t be the first bs take I saw people get from it.
“he saved her life from a surgery she was unable to consent to”
Untrue. They didn’t tell Ellie it was going to kill her, but she clearly knew and she wanted to be the sacrifice. When Joel finally comes clean about what he did, she’s outraged with him for taking that away from her.
“for an experiment that would probably fail even by the game’s logic (pretty sure you can find audio logs from the doctor about previous failed attempts with other immune people)”
I think you’re just confusing memories of what Joel tells Ellie at the end of the first game (that there are lots of immune people and that the attempt to create a vaccine from them failed, explicitly a lie).
“and would definitely fail in reality (unless I’m mistaken in believing you can’t create a vaccine for a fungus).”
I mean the premise is that she has antibodies for whatever disease results from exposure to the spores, I don’t think it’s necessarily a vaccine for fungus.
Anyway the whole game falls apart if you assume that Joel DIDN’T choose to deny the world a chance for a cure, like. That is central to the first and second game’s story.
She didn’t know it was going to kill her because Joel also didn’t know until they told him.
She probably would have said yes regardless, but since she never woke up before they started prepping, they never told her.
No. I’m pretty sure there are audio logs in the second game.
Or it might be the scene with the doctor talking to Marlene.
I’ll see if I can find some mention of them.
If I can’t, I’ll come back and say so.
It’s not a disease.
The fungus actually controls your body, just as it does in reality ants and other creatures (the control part, not the rage zombie part).
It’s part of its reproductive cycle to control the host.
So they do have to prevent the fungus itself from affecting people, and I don’t think there are fungus antibodies (but I could be wrong).
I know some of her friends feel that Joel took away the chance for a cure, but Abby just wants revenge (which is fair).
And I say that because there seems to be no attempt to find another doctor nor to find the immune girl.
As messed up as the world is, it’s hard to believe that he was the only qualified doctor left or that they can’t train new ones.
It wouldn’t be easy, but if your goal is too save humanity, it’s worth trying.
Besides, just because we can find out they had failed experiments (again, I’ll try to verify if I’m pulling this out of thin air), that doesn’t mean they’re aware.
Found two YouTube videos.
1st one is Marlene and the doctor talking about not telling Ellie and just doing the surgery
That implies they, at least, did not think she would agree to sacrifice herself.
That said, it also seems to be the first time Marlene is hearing about a fatal surgery, so there don’t seem to be previous attempts.
2nd video was Ellie finding a recording tape from a firefly saying it was pointless to go after the immune girl because they were told no one else could make a vaccine (still think they can try to find or train more, but whatever).
And for a bonus round of me being wrong ChatGPT (so take it with a grain of salt) says there are no fungus vaccines for humans YET, but there are experiments going on for different fungi and also that there are already vaccines for things like ringworm in animals.
ChatGPT doesn’t get a grain of salt from me it gets barrels. It doesn’t “know” anything, and if you ask it to answer even slightly complicated questions, it will just make things up because that’s faster than doing anything else, and it was programmed to prioritize speed.
For the record, when I said this part, They didn’t tell Ellie it was going to kill her, but she clearly knew and she wanted to be the sacrifice, I am referring to how Ellie seems surprised to wake up — and how mistrustful she is of Joel’s response — and how later, when he admits to it, she berates him for taking away a chance for her life to have meant something.
I’ll admit that “clearly” was overstating things, but I think it’s VERY strong implied that Ellie suspected the cure would kill her even though no one said as much, and that she had accepted that. Frankly, after what she went through in the story segment where you play as her, which takes place right before all of this… I think she was in a kind of deep depression, and was very okay with not ever waking up. 🙁 🙁
(But also, hey, we’re cool 🙂 Thanks for going looking on YouTube to find video sources!!)
I’m reasonably certain there was no intention to make a vaccine. Ellie was infected with a mutated version of the fungus that was benign. The existence of that fungus prevented her from being infected with the deadly version. I’m pretty sure the intention was to cultivate and infect everyone with the benign version to prevent them from being vulnerable to the deadly version.
I have not played TLOU2 but I am given to understand there are… poorly thought out parallels to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (some argue otherwise). A DOA character switch wouldn’t have that and so would be better.
Okay. I would suggest you read the links I provided up above bc I think that’s a very uncharitable read of the games and the things the writer has said, and you might or might not agree, but it would behoove you to actually know what he said.
I love the little gag of her being confused why all the newspapers are gone in her dorm. I know it’s only calling back to yesterday, but little details like that make yesterday’s joke even funnier to me and make the comic world feel a bit more alive!
I don’t think she has any idea Jocelyn exists. Also, if the art style can be trusted, Jocelyn just looks like a taller Joyce with slightly shorter hair anyways.
I choose to believe that panel 4 is Asma intentionally not giving very much information for the same reason that she didn’t want to cooperate with Joyce and Dorothy at the protest to find Jocelyn.
Granted, Asma and Raidah might know each other from their mosque, etc, so there may be less concern about cop energy, but it does feel like she’s intentionally giving an extremely vague response, probably because it’s really not a great idea to share information about the protest and its participants with people who weren’t present. It’s just bad form.
Certainly possible. I believe the population is around 80,000, so even if all I am currently finding is the Islamic Center of Bloomington with a quick search, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility, be it there or a neighboring city.
Google and Yelp do seem to show that that is in fact the only mosque in Bloomington proper. Without knowing whether or not they have cars, it is probably a safe bet to say that they both go to the closest mosque(if they regularly go at all).
Yeah I’m pretty sure Dorothy has made a concerted effort to remember Asma’s name and called other characters on it. For the brief semester I went to college and lived in a dorm I worked the front desk. The only people who knew me by name were the RAs.
Maybe that’s why I like Asma so much. I requested her magnet for the previous Kickstarter. Then on a reread of the comic remembered Nash was a character and seriously panicked I’d mixed them up. I like Nash, too, and that used to be my last name.
“I choose to believe that panel 4 is Asma intentionally not giving very much information for the same reason that she didn’t want to cooperate with Joyce and Dorothy at the protest to find Jocelyn.”
this was immediately the vibe i got as well. after all, you can’t really say raidah doesn’t also, herself, have narc energy?
Raidah would have narced on her in an instant if she’d gotten in Raidah’s way. Since she was only in Sarah’s way, however, narcing on her was an unforgivable sin.
so that new poll, I just wanna say
NONE of these ships are cursed, because all of them are gay. Most of them also imply massive leaps in character development for almost all characters involved, which would be *deeply* fascinating to see play out.
The ACTUAL most cursed ship is Joyce/Walky. Straight, played out, would involve regression instead of progression. No one wants to see that happen ever again, it’s all over for a good reason.
Runner up is Alice/Ruth. Oh my god could you imagine????? AHHHH I got scared just thinking about it??????? AAAA
Listen I’ve been going to bat a lot about being accepting of all queer identities, but idk if i could welcome whatever those two would have going on into my community OxO
the idea of Mary not only ending up gay somehow, but ending up gay *with Roz* would cure one of my various illnesses, I think. Like yes, hypothetical queen, tear down those structures of racism and homophbia within you. Eradicate that slut-shaming misogyny.
This would never happen, but the idea of it implies such a shift that I would never turn down the chance
Honestly, I think it’s still cursed because the main way I can see that happening is if Mary does realize she likes girls but then also Roz gets worse, because the intersection between them is “lesbians who are theoretically feminist but hate 90% of women for making their theory harder”, y’know TERFs, SWERFs, racist second wavers, et al..
She’s not, but like, Mary isn’t really either. The closest intersection is pretty far away.
I have seen real human beings make that specific heel turn; people who talk a good game but don’t really care about others going conservative after college don’t always go full tilt right-wing.
I think Roz and Mary would become the yin to each other’s yang but in an evil way. Maybe Mary learns how to not to be a terrible person, but I fear this ship would have Roz become a nun or something by the end.
Three out of the five are too unlikely to make a good cursed ship. Dorothy and Jennifer aren’t bad enough to be cursed. This leaves Sal/Amazing Girl by default.
I’d like Sal/Amazi-Girl to happen primarily to see Jennifer’s reaction to seeing them in one place. Bonus if she keeps insisting they’re the same person.
The idea of Raidah/Sarah implies that they either kill the beef, find a common ground, and join to become the ultimate “Not mad, just disjointed” mom friend, OR they hate each other so much more than normal that they can’t do anything but fuck about it anymore. Either option, in my opinion, would be a *blessing* on the world, not a curse.
You should probably reread my comment again. I didn’t say they were lol. I said Tony had reminded us that beef’s real name was Steven. It’s in literally the newest page beef is on screen for.
wait i want alice/ruth so bad now. that’s such a good idea. can you imagine how insane that would make jennifer. I think she would actually for real turn into a supervillian, that would be great
all of the ships in the poll are painfully pedestrian, if Willis wanted a REAL cursed ship poll it’d be full of like, ships nobody has ever considered and would make one’s skin crawl once one does; like Dina/Jason or Agatha/Blaine or any other truly awful things one could concoct.
(but if im being real, the real reason i shake my fist at the poll is bc as much as i see the vision re: Dorothy/Jennifer i must admit my heart belongs to Dorothy/Becky when it comes to Dorothy Hatefuck Yuri)
What was that incredible alt text joke from back in the day? “Continuing the trend, tomorrow’s strip will feature a third couple waking up together, except it’ll be something totally wild like Galasso/Mary”
Jason and Dina agree to date as a sensible intellectual match. Jump-cut to next morning, Jason on all fours in a gimp mask and leash, Dina sitting on his back eating a bowl of cereal.
i raise you all:
joe/carol
joyce/mary
blaine/toedad… i think if doa had a different audience there would be at least one person earnestly making cutesyfied blaine and toedad yoai (not even toxic just with them holding hands or whatever which is worse somehow)
joyce/mary happens in the doa bad timeline where they were assigned roommates,and joyce gloms onto her as her first outside-world friend/repressed crush. mary gradually shapes her in her own image (republican fanartist)
sorry i had this wretched vision and must burden you all with it
(Also if we’re really going for cursed ships I’m kind of surprised and relieved that nobody’s crossed the line into any particularly problematic stuff. I’m not going to start but yeah can definitely think of some much more cursed stuff than anything that’s been mentioned without even getting into anything that would be out of place on ao3.)
I’m in the same ‘None of these ships are cursed’ boat. The closest for me is Roz/Mary because Mary’s kinda gross and somebody mentioned the possibility that they could make each other worse which is a terrifying thought, but yeah my assumption was like you that it would arise from/lead to major deconstruction on Mary’s part and maybe lead to her getting some character growth? Which would be pretty cool. And like, I can see the two of them antagonising each other into having some sort of relationship and things progressing from there, like this isn’t even the first time this ship has crossed my mind, I have the vessel built and floating in the harbour just awaiting the signal to set sail.
Honestly at this point I am actually curious what the golden path for Joyce/Walky to happen in this universe would be. I have to assume it involves Dorothy straight up dying.
No no no I’m talking about Joyce and Walky, in this strip, moving forward from this point. What circumstances would need to transpire from this point to get them together?
You know that strip where Dorothy, Walky, and Joyce fall asleep watching cartoons together? I’m thinking golden path would involve Dorothy dating both of them and a lot more situations like that happening, for a start
nah, these are two characters who are so fully done with Joyce’s everything that the comments are, for once, just going to be everyone nodding and politely humming “No yeah for real” before moving on.
At this point it’s normal for people in these comments to be getting into arguments about everything. Which is why I always find it weird when someone posts a comment along the lines of “surely we’ll have normal comments today”.
I just reread a strip where Sal is courting Danny and Joe is in disbelief. He quips, “Is this happening because I’m not bi? Do I have to be bi?” and I think he’s commented on guys being attractive (Like Walky being mistaken for Sal or Sal being hot despite just being fem Walky).
because in my life the people i have had to deal with who have behaved in the manner raidah does, that is how the reacted, like i had a coworker who took raidahs attitude to the extreme, and adsolutely unreasonably hated on anyone who got any form of attention they didn’t. we ahd someone from the office recognized in the community for their volunteer work in a local paper, and all they did was complain that this person was undeserving of reconition simply becuase “they onky volunteered for the recognition” and what they volunteered doing (the recipiant had been a 20 year youth coach) was “unworthy of being celebrated” went to highschool with a girl who had an absolute breakdown cause one of the other cast memers of the school musical was on the poster (even though they were a sid echaracter who had 6 lines and only sung as part of the corus and the pictured student was the male lead).
also i said mad not jealous. her anger doesnt stem from wanting the attention joyce is getting but the fact that joyce is getting any attention at all. to her joyce isnt worthy of anyone anywhere giving her attention. not saying she doesnt have a good reason to be mad at joyce. just that the vibe she gives me is the same as the people i have described above. she gives me the heebie jeebies i get from people who view everyone around them as npc in their life that are supposed to exist to make her successful
but she would be able to put that she was on the front page of her campus paper and that is something that can be used as a means o differntiating her for others for the purpose of climbing the ladder
She doesn’t want to be “different”. She wants to make socially-advantageous connections – I don’t know that she disdains friendships that don’t advantage her, but she clearly prioritizes the ones that do.
I get the feeling that she’s more astonished – she’d filed Joyce in her mental rolodex as “fundie kid, harmless, no value”, and there the “fundie kid” is, macking on “maybe future politician, keep lines open” right there in public! Girls kissing, yeah, fine, whatever – but these girls???
(I also agree with others that Asma’s a little dismissive of Dorothy’s apparent reason for being there, but other than that is deliberately “not remembering” the names of anyone else she saw at the protest.)
I mean she definitely has personal animus for Joyce re: Jacob. She’s made that clear repeatedly. Joyce could be eating crackers minding her own business and past interactions would still have Raidah thinking “what a bongo”.
Obviously that doesn’t make her envious (?????) of this publicity or someone who wants to be popular (that’s literally Jennifer, Jennifer has been all about wanting to be popular, and Lucy has also wanted popularity), but yeah I just don’t want it to get lost that Joyce is very much her nemesis, from Raidah’s perspective.
An aside, but I do like that Asma’s name is, well, Asma. Extremely easy to spell and say. It fits the running gag that it’d be very simple for these folks to commit it to memory, but they’re so caught up in their own mess typically that they probably don’t register her much, or it’s someone like Walky where he’s just ridiculously lazy about that sort of thing.
It’s 45 years later, and I still remember the name of the cashier at our student union cafeteria.great sense of humor, cute as a button black girl with a marvelous ‘fro. I asked her out once and got politely shot down and neither of us were weird about it later.
Oh, her name was Dorian. Dorian Duran.
Golly, what a feat of memorization it was to recall “Dorian Duran” in 1980
At least she wasn’t invisible, and neither of you was immature enough to come undone over it. When someone’s turned down, the reflex to be a hothead and make it a big thing can be pretty hard to fight.
It’s funny because the running gag started with her not knowing Walky’s name either, but him expecting her to. I don’t think her name had even been used in the comic at that point (tags and maybe patreon strips aside).
Is it even so much about remembering her name as ever learning it? She doesn’t seem to wear a name tag.
I wonder if Raidah knows Asma’s name. I’d say it’s an equal chance she doesn’t or she does, depending on whether knowing the name of a RA is important to her or not.
if she’s actually smart about her “Using people to get ahead” thing, she would know Asma by name. Asma runs the mail, and Raidah *should* know that you *always* treat the janitors, secretaries, and food staff well, since they hold the keys to getting anything actually done inside the corpo world.
And often know more of what’s going on than people further up the food chain, because people ignore them and say things in front of them they might not otherwise.
And they literally hold the keys to getting seen by the higher ups. You know who setting that calendar for Bigwig Von Monopoly? Their secretary. You know who has spare keys to the nicer bathrooms when you’re about to find out if Doordash can buy you new pants? Janitor.
Asma’s not an RA, she works the front desk. In most dorms it’s a different type of role, much more clerical/administrative and no expectation that you’ll be a mentor/emotional support to the residents.
roz/mary: extremely cursed, my vote
sarah/raidah: also highly cursed, not my vote but respect
dorothy/jennifer: mildly cursed at most
walky/joe: crack pairing, sure, but cursed? how is this cursed?
sal/amazi-girl: actually kinda good why is this in the list? xD
Sal/AG would KICK ASS!!! It would turn into more of a toxic codependent nightmare than Billie and Ruth by the end, but oh my god would there be FIREWORKS!!!
Roz/Mary: Roz is so sex-positive and Mary is so repressed, I could see her cracking and going to the Known Sex-Haver to just Do the Thing. Very fanfic trope-y, but those are the waters I tread, so. Not that cursed to me!
Sarah/Raidah: This was my second choice, but I reasoned myself out of it by thinking about how similar and competitive they ARE and seeing that easily devolve into a hate-sex-turned-enemies-to-lovers arc.
Dorothy/Jennifer: No curse here. Jennifer’s a horny bongo mess, if things with Joyce get Too Complicated and go bad, very easy to see the two of them doing a Trash Roof Remix type situation.
Walky/Joe: Most cursed. They just do not mesh at all and Joe is so Straight that while Walky has at least shown some awareness of other dudes’ hotness, I just can’t see any situation where they are Together. No chemistry, nothing pulling them together, I just don’t see it.
Walky Joe just hasn’t been written. But there is nothing in the narrative making it impossible. Walky admires joe a little. Joe is attracted to Sal. It’s not nothing.
Some people are attracted to the little guy big guy thing.
Speculating here: Because Raidah is in a conservative religion and has picked up homophobia? Because, as some straight men are freaked out by gay guys, some straight women are freaked out by lesbians? Because Raidah is self-hating gay herself? She didn’t, after all, show much interest in having sex with Jacob. Which is to say, not any interest.
Well Joyce is on her shit list. I can’t remember if Dorothy did anything to pass her off.
She is also annoyed that kiss was front in center instead of the actual protest. I knew readers are not going to like that. Daisy might be removed from editor soon because of this.
Dorothy is a friend of Joyce and that’s enough to put her on Raidah’s shit list.
She could be annoyed about the coverage of the protest, but she doesn’t actually say that here, she’s focused on it being Dorothy and Joyce. Which fits well with when she ran into them coming back from the protest and asked if they “got the attention they wanted”.
joyce is sarahs friend, sarah is not allowed to have anything cause she crossed raidah (ensuring a friend gets the necessarymedical attention to me is far more imoortant than that their arents can help me get ahead, but i do not see others as npc’s in my life) there for joyce is not allowed to have anything either.
Buuuuuuuuuut the state government sent police to launch an attack on an encampment of protestors, firing tear gas and other less-lethal munitions causing a not insignificant amount of chaos.
Among other impacts… that’s gonna move some newspapers.
The hate of Raidah is strong despite aside from being rude to Dina (and I’m neuroatypical so it pissed me off), she’s been the victim of the heroes more than the reverse.
Jennifer is not her friend, she is part of Raidah’s Machiavellian scheme to destroy Sarah and Joyce’s friend group. We haven’t seen her talk shit behind the back of anyone she actually likes.
Also: it’s not like the scheming comes from nowhere, it’s expressly her trying to get revenge for Joyce’s whole crummy “tempting Jacob and causing him to end his relationship with Raidah” scheme. It’s like, a bit disproportionate, maybe, but I think mostly in terms of like… Raidah being a more formidable opponent than either Sarah or Joyce took her for.
(I also wonder if she actually THINKS she’s lying when she says things like “Jennifer is healing from a toxic friend group by being with us”. Not because she thinks she likes Jennifer, but because she might legitimately feel like Sarah and Joyce are such bad people to be around that even just being polite to Jennifer’s face is an improvement.)
Yay more asma! I kind of worry about her “normal woman in a teen drama world” vibe getting lost with her becoming more of a focused on character, but well see if Willis is able to pull it off, I have faith
As a writer myself, I’m always impressed by Willis’s plotting, his characterization, his buildups, his transitions. He’s really good. (Not buttering up a guy I don’t even know. Just like his work.)
Like Lawsome!, each episode follows the exact same format with a different person each week checking out a vacuum cleaner and getting utterly pwned by Asma
If I’d somehow managed to start college early enough to get into a dorm, I guarantee I’d never have considered asking the person at the front desk if I could borrow their vacuum cleaner. Why would I assume they had one? I’d either look for a janitor who could help or take one from the nearest Walmart.
It’ exactly the sort of detail they would mention (more than once, probably) during Freshman Orientation; and after a couple of weeks you would have almost certainly witnessed friends and acquaintances in your dorm checking them out and returning them
Which is really just proof that you didn’t live in a undergrad dorm at a big school, because practically the first thing they tell you on move-in day is that any and all logistics requests start at the mailroom/front desk clerk — loaner cleaning apparatus, the sign-up sheets to reserve the big-screen TV lounge, troubleshooting adding money to your laundry card, you name it.
(in one notable case when I was an undergrad, “reporting that you were afraid someone had mailed you anthrax”.)
Yeah, there was no reality in which I ever attended a “big school”. One year at the local community college in my 30s, that’s what the cards had in store.
I mean to be fair, I think we kind of have a “worst person you know just made a great point” thing with raidah here, she is, for once in her life, justifiably angry bout something
Especially if she knows Dorothy and Walky were together at the time, because Joyce has done this before, at Raidah’s expense. I can imagine that poking at a sore spot for her and as terrible as she is, she’s also got every right to feel raw about the breakup and the reason behind it.
Yeah I remember that there was a relationship-update strip where Raidah learned about some new pairings, I just don’t recall who was on the list aside from Sarah and Tony. But if she does know that Joyce once again kissed someone who was committed to another person, oof, yeah, I can see and understand Raidah having strong feelings about it.
watch this be the city living mini-arc where we get to follow every minor background character on their way to pick up the news while getting insight on their background character lives
omg i remember you talking about him reading DOA in the patreon! wont say much else bc we don’t know each other like that but it’s very sweet and cute and i also personally know how fun it is too to have a partner that also reads this comic.
Jay, i hope you enjoy the rest of this chapter, and kudos to getting to the point where you can get the full 24h daily upload experience lol.
WILLIS: Yesssss. Yesssss! The work of but one strip featuring Joyce yoinking Dorothy and already the psychic anguish flows! It will feed the core enough for a millennium…
(A beat of silence)
WILLIS: But I require…more. Raidah! I summon you! Bring me…DISCOURSE.
(From the shadows, RAIDAH emerges, bowing low and smirking.)
When I heard that Willis had gone back and added more strips of Muslim characters reacting to the protest fallout, I’ll admit my expectations weren’t terribly high. But this one works for me. It doesn’t feel too shoehorned or superficial, and I like that Asma gets to have a dig in at all the characters who have routinely taken her for granted for 10+ years.
I also am intrigued by the potential for Raidah to get involved here. Not because I like her as a character but because it might be interesting to get a different side of her. She’s usually so condescending as to be unwatchable, but this role in the story could change that.
P.S. Yes, I’m aware this could’ve been a planned strip even before the rewrites, most of my statement still stands
I got the feeling from some of their comments that this story arc was going to happen either way, and narratively it doesn’t feel unexpected to me, but I’d assume it has been fleshed out better for sure, and will be less likely to be ‘forgotten’ in the future narrative than it may have been otherwise.
Well the, not problem per say, but difficulty of giving more screen time to a character like Asma is the same reason she hasn’t had much before. She’s a background character without really any connection to the larger social group all the other major characters are a part of. The comic already has such a large cast.
yeah stealing the papers was never going to work, they know plenty of people outside their floor and building (and also like, there’s gotta be more than one newspaper distribution spot in there anyway)
my thoughts:
– I think Raidah is going to (rightfully) be like “hey look at these white assholes making the protest about them and distracting the papers from the point” (both of the protests, and the point that cops were ready to shoot at students)
– Raidah might out them to people other than Asma [by saying ‘the gays in that photo are Dorothy and Joyce,’ I mean, seeing as the image does already out them a bit], but I’m not wholly convinced it’ll be on purpose, especially since many people have assumed Joyce is bi before, and Raidah may think she’s out already. Like, Raidah is absolutely petty and mean enough, but on the other hand in the part where Char and Chan called Dina the r-word, she did have that “we’re in the WORLD” moment about how you shouldn’t say shit like they did. so she might have morals not to out them on purpose
– that said I could see her going “look at these assholes, and these assholes are Joyce and Dorothy” without even considering the outing angle
(don’t get me wrong, the reporting is also Daisy’s fault, but they gave her something to report on)
(also don’t get me wrong, I don’t think by any means that Joyce and Dorothy planned this [but I’ve seen one or two comments to that effect on previous pages so I felt the need to clarify])
“– I think Raidah is going to (rightfully) be like “hey look at these white assholes making the protest about them and distracting the papers from the point” (both of the protests, and the point that cops were ready to shoot at students)”.
Eh I worry how it would come off having specifically raidah critique Joyce and Dorothy like this, I think it could risk coming off like its villanizing the critique of Joyce and Dorothy by having raidah, usually an antagonist character, be the one saying it
that’s fair. I’d say maybe it could be used to pull Raidah back into neutral territory but after everything with not just Joyce and Sarah, but Dina and Billie and Walky, it’s probably too late for that.
Raidah is an antagonist but she’s not usually a cartoon villain, she just has a grudge against Sarah and Joyce (the latter for an extremely good reason). It’s ok for her to be right sometimes.
It’s fine for her to be right sometimes, but when the manipulative antagonist with a grudge against the main character is critiquing that main character, it’s easy to pass that off as just part of the grudge.
No one’s mentioned that Daisy’s coverage of the protest is kinda fucked? Sure, it wasn’t the best place to be making out, but on its own that’s pretty harmless. Who the eff, on the other hand, photographs a couple kissing and puts it on the front page for its protest reporting? Daisy’s horniness was a fun joke, but now it’s clear she’s got limited journalistic integrity and I’d expect there to be calls for her removal.
It appears I should have been more specific: no one *in-universe* has mentioned it (on-panel, anyway). I make zero claims about what has been discussed in comments!
There was a preview panel a while ago of Daisy with someone off panel shouting her name that was, pre-Willis reevaluating some things, set for yesterday
Honestly? Yeah, I think if we’re trying to be true to life at all, the Student Media Publication Board (which among other people includes a professor and an assistant dean from IU’s journalism school over in the real-world this is based on) probably does care quite a bit about the journalistic integrity of the student newspaper.
Right. Student newspapers are meant to help cultivate the talents of the next generation of journalists, and that includes holding them to journalistic ethical standards, so that they can learn them.
Daisy has the distinction of being the MOST Flanderized character in the comic (a comic which includes Mary, among others), so yeah, I’m not surprised in the slightest!
Remember that one time that Joyce submitted her comic and Daisy had, like, four entire strips where she acted like a real human being and even gave Joyce some decent editorial feedback?
And then Walky showed up and Daisy said “your shirt is damp, OMG MAYBE A *WOMAN* LICKED IT”
What I’m saying is that expecting anything except the horniest possible choice from Daisy is a mistake
There are three (four?) lesbian characters of any prominence in the strip, and only one of them gets any regular screen time. Maybe instead make Daisy an actual character and give her MORE to do instead of further paring down the strip’s lesbian representation?
maybe you shouldn’t be sucking face at a public event that’s being very much covered from lots of angles by the media AND crawling with cops if you didn’t want to be outed. not exactly a private spot
Once again, incidents like that have happened two or three times before during huge, world-newsworthy protests all across the globe; and every single news organization that had access to pictures like that ran them into the dirt making use of them.
Literally every news editor on the planet not working for the Vatican News Service would have run with that photo as fast as they possibly could.
thi is unfortunately true, as it will move papers and thats their job. is it icky on many levels yeah, but it is also true that when in a public place at a public event, with known media present, one has inherently waived the right to anonymity by not wearing a mask.
As much as Raidah is…*absolutely not* a good person, her reaction of angry/confused/’what is even happening’ when you see a picture of the person who blew up her relationship the prior semester being horny for her ex BF now on a front page passionately making out with another girl is a valid response.
Internalized homo/biphobia. As she put it before the timeskip, “I’m not bi, I’m… I don’t want to say normal, that’s awful.”
She has Feelings, but she knows they’re shitty feelings when she has to say them out loud. She wouldn’t react like that.
Much more likely that she connects it to the “advice” she gave Joyce and says “oh they’re not necessarily bi, you can makeout sometimes and still be regular best friends”.
Raidah spends entirely too much time invested in other people’s lives that don’t care about her. She should be spending this energy getting some real friends and hobbies instead. I’m serious. I wish her the best because her current status quo on the surface looks kind of sad. Spiting Sarah, Joyce, and possibly Dorothy by extension gets her nothing. She’s better off trying to join them if she actually wants to ruin them because that friend group is great at hurting each other as shown. Please Raidah, find some real people to hang with.
Well as we see when Jennifer talked about Alice she seems genuinely confused about the concept of being friends with someone without any sort of possible social benefits.
to raidah, all human interactionis taken with the exclusive purpose of generating wealth, social equity, or personal gain. any and all other interactions are purposeless and make no sense to her
We think Raidah and Asma hangout? This conversation feels slightly more familiar than the standard service/patron dynamic. It feels like they at least know each other on a named basis. I’ve been running on the idea Raidah doesn’t really have friends anymore but Asma would be a nice upgrade for her.
If they both go to the same mosque, then perhaps they’ve seen each other there and talked. But I don’t think we’ve seen Asma enough to know who she’s friends with at this point.
Seems like it would be weird to have her working in a building she doesn’t live in, but my college didn’t have front desks in the dorms, so I can’t really say for sure.
When I went to a big state school, the dorm front-desk workers were all generally recruited from the same dorm area, but not necessarily the same building. (our dorms were divided into approximately five regions that all shared a dining hall but had individual front desks per building, of which there were 5-16(!) in a cluster)
I am curious what Raidah is most surprised about here, is she surprised by the fact that Dorothy and Joyce were actually in the thick of the protest? Or perhaps she is more reacting to how paper is making Dorothy and Joyce kissing the center focus of the protest rather than the actual issue it was about?
given how transactionally we have seen raidah view life as being i highly doubt any of her rage is related to them diverting attention from the protest. i cannot see her viewing the protest or participating in it as a act beneficial to advancing ones career and social status, and thus her caring about it
Article writers very rarely write their own headlines, as the headline depends a lot on thing like the layout of the page, which the writer can’t know in advance
Yes yes yes! The delicious Asma sarcasm, I like it.
Also about time, we get it, Raidah is ambitious and snobbish, now show us were she does all the good stuff, the community organizing, the volunteering at the local legal clinic!
I’m fully prepared for the writer to take this wherever they please.
I’d just like to see something about Raidah that isn’t “mean girl” because I enjoy three dimensional antagonists.
I don’t know about necessary, it’s just something I’d like to see *shrug*
Who knows, maybe even some new insights about the Sarah/Dana thing, where we suddenly understand better how she constructed her image of Sarah as a heartless narc? I’d be interested.
But then I’m also interested in many other arcs, so I’ll happily take what I’m given
i can see her as a three demensional villain as it is, as i have known people in real life for whom this is all they are and the lens they view life through. she isnt far from a former co-worker who viewed life as an outright no hold barred no rules truly apply competition, that can only be won by devoting every consious moment to the acquisition of wealth power and status, and to not do so is to deny the truth of the world.
he actually said once that if it came to it he would 100% disadvantage his own family to persue his personal success, even if it meant actively undermining his child.
This strip is very light on nuanced antagonists (it’s not a particular creative strength of Willis’ to be fair), but I think Raidah has a lot of potential.
way to see the domino effect in action… like, what’s up soon, Jennifer lamenting that Dorothy didn’t take pics of Amazi-Girl? or taking back her assumptions about Dorothy’s orientation? Danny?
Oh, this is going to be a weird sort of vindication for Raidah. She was already asking if they were happy with the attention they received for going to the protest. This is a whole ‘nother level of attention. Now the question is how it will actually play out from here. Raidah is…Raidah, but then again maybe this will make her reevaluate Dorothy and Joyce is she sees them freaking out. Or, she’ll just be smug in her “correct” assessment about white freshman.
so something not mentioned yet… Y’all remember when Raidiah blames Sara for reporting her close friend’s rule breaking that led to said friend leaving the college (and remembering that she refuses to believe that Sarah only reported the problem because said friend was spiraling and needed an intervention to save her life and only sees it as Sarah being vindictive)?
well golly gee wouldn’t it suck if Radiah learned that someone who was very close to Sarah wound up in a situation where she was caught doing something that if reported to the campus administration could very well get said person close to Sarah expelled for breaking rules and would be a perfect opertunity for blackmail or revenge?
I mean bear in mind that Joyce was flat out told that things were going to get bad at the protests with police breaking up the thing and she ran the risk of getting in a lot of trouble if she was there since it’s very likely the protest is going to be called a “riot” considering a girl at the protest was running around fighting cops. If it does get branded a riot that would look very bad for any known student participants
Raidah isn’t really blaming Sarah for reporting on her roommate’s rule-breaking, it was more that she told on her parents that said roommate was going through a mental breakdown featuring drug addiction, something that Raidah thought wasn’t out of control and feels Sarah overreacted to.
Like, I don’t even Raidah really cares about the rule-breaking aspect of it, or things Sarah cares all that much about that factor. Its not like Raidah’s called Sarah a narc or anything, she’s not *that* kind of backstabber.
accept raidah felt the drug spiral wasnt even something to worry about, she was willing to let her “friend” OD and die because the event would be usable for social advancement and networking. in the strips where raidahsarah rehash everything i get the vibe raidah saw her friends spiral as a means to get closer the that friend parents and their proffesional circle,it always came off to me that she felt she was robbed of an easy social climbing win. (i also got the vibe that she had hoped fornher friend to commit suicide so she could be performative at the funeral and use it to climb further.)
That wasn’t really a defense of Raidah or saying that she did nothing wrong or anything, my point is just that Raidah’s objection to Sarah’s actions isn’t about Sarah being a narc or anything, like the person I was replying to seemed to be suggesting.
Her friend was in a hell of a spiral but to my knowledge was only using weed. Last I checked you could not od and die from weed. You can wind up dizzy, throwing up, paranoid, but I have never heard of someone dying of too much weed unless you count situations involving driving while high.
There isn’t anything to report to the administration. Everything she knows about it, she learned from the paper. Which the administration also has access to.
Even if she did, there’s not going to be a lot of initiative on the part of either the campus administration or the police to go after two white girls who left the protest soon after it was declared an illegal demonstration.
Walky/Joe: Just a weird mismatch. Even if you set aside the canonical sexual orientations, there’s just no conflict there. 1/10.
Sarah/Raidah: The most epic of hatefucks. So much hatefucking. There’s just real passion behind their mutual loathing. Oddly, this ship shoots past a 10/10 and descends, just because of how much raw emotion is involved. 7/10.
Sal/Amazigirl: …honestly, the only thing that makes this anything but wholesome is that Danny is the bestest boy. 2/10
Roz/Mary: Pure, uncut toxicity. The kind that isn’t even interesting. It’s kinda like Walky/Joe, but inverted, where there’s not much real passion but so much goddamn mutual loathing that it just spoils the whole thing.
Dorothy/Jennifer: …feels kinda random, honestly. There’s no obvious red flags, but there’s no obvious pain points either. Its the sort of thing that makes no sense now, but honestly could maybe work in the end. 3/10.
Like, it would be a little bit hatefucky, though if that’s what you want from a ship, Sarah and Raidah is the clear winner.
(Mary/Roz is my vote for cursed. I don’t think they’ve even interacted enough on panel for it to appeal to folks who like belligerent sexual tension! They’re just very opposed to each other ideologically! It’s not personal enough, on-panel. Might as well set Roz up with any random conservative douchebag.)
So to recap: Thursday morning (1 Mar 25) Joe hits Dorothy with “Are you into Joyce” question.
Friday evening Joyce and Dorothy almost kiss.
Friday midnight Joe and Joyce big date and happy midnight grope.
Saturday morning Joyce and Dorothy can’t “do laundry”.
Saturday late afternoon Joyc and Dorothy big kiss.
Saturday evening Joyce attempts to cancel Joe, gets blanket, oral thank you.
Sunday morning totally outed by newspaper, Joe and Walky canceled, dealing with damage control.
Total four days comic time (29 Aug 25)
Manic Depressives don’t change channels that fast. 🙂
Walky and Joe have history!!! They’ve been man-married! Joe was NOT a supportive husband to Walky!
*coughcough* oh crap. Joyce and Joe were initially paired, and she left Joe, paired instead with Dorothy, shoving Walky out to wind up with Joe. As the prophecy foretold!
Anyways… Roz and Mary could make sense in one way: in a dom/sub BDSM-style relationship. Especially as Roz, the ever-educating sexpert, could take it as an opportunity to take Mary down a peg and potentially make life more bearable for everyone else, and Mary would be a mass of hormones fighting internalized shame that she’d only be able to do it if she wasn’t already being punished in some way.
Sadly it feels that this DoA comments section has become too toxic and I need to move on.
I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety, and several prominent posters here make me feel like shit. There are nice people here, but it only takes a few who feel no qualms about ad hominem attacks to ruin my day (at minimum).
When you lash out at people, no matter how justified and righteous you feel, you can hurt somebody very badly and cause self destructive thoughts to surface.
Be kinder to strangers, it costs you nothing and may save a life.
As I said last time Raidah showed up and people decided to take this line, there are any number of legitimate reasons for Raidah to not have been at the protest, and the protest is not the sole means of support one can show to a people struggling against genocidal violence.
(Apropos of nothing donate to a Palestinian fundraiser today!)
Every time Raidah shows up I’m reminded that half of this comment section does not understand her even a little bit and just views her as a cardboard cutout of a high school mean girl.
Honestly, I think this isn’t entirely true, but it’s not entirely false, either—Raidah’s a more multifaceted villain-figure than, like, Mary, who is just your basic fashy jackass.
Raidah strikes me as someone I’ve seen a lot of online, actually—someone who has good beliefs, like genuinely good ones, and wants to do good things, BUT is simultaneously very self-aggrandizing, vindictive, and has rationalized that retribution is justice, actually.
Hence why, despite probably knowing on some level that Sarah acted at least partially out of reasonable self-preservation, she organized (and continues to organize) a year-and-change-long harassment campaign against Sarah that’s legitimately traumatized the poor girl—Sarah wronged her friend and took away her autonomy, so therefore Sarah is Bad, so therefore harassment is justice!
This extends to her social-climbing and mercenary-assed attitude towards career and social hierarchy shit. I have no doubt she has as good of intentions as Dorothy, but she’s lost in the sauce of being The Best and Most Important Person in the Room.
I mean there’s also the layer that Raidah is a woman of color and a Muslim, axes of social marginalization that certainly inform her striving tendencies. It’s no excuse for how she treats people, Sarah in particular, but it does inform her relentless pursuit of networking and connections – she has to work twice as hard for half of what most people get, and especially in her chosen field who you know is at least as important as what you know.
Raidah has way more of my pity than contempt at this point. She has nothing going on. This strip encapsulates everything that her character is these days which is walking the halls alone between campus reacting to things more interesting characters are doing. She’s become isolated as a character because of intersecting with the main group and her own nature. They’ve ruined her relationship and taken the interesting characters as a result. Even her little group she had at the start of the winter arc is splintered out to greener pastures because she failed them as a genuine friend when needed. Her early friends Chan and Char seem to have been quietly phased out. (They were pretty terrible anyway) There’s just Raidah and Carl the guy whose most notable trait is being bland and unnoticed.
So Raidah apparently now just studies and walks around. It’s implied she’s all about connections and social climbing but ironically everyone else is better at it and has more connections by just being real friends. It’s very sad.
Oh, yeah, they absolutely do inform her striving tendencies 100%.
She’s actually, ironically, not so different from Dorothy; a shadowy mirror held up to her, kind of, both in her ambition and drive to be taken seriously…
AND in her being trapped in trying to use the master’s tools to tear down the master’s house. Like, as much as it feels good, Raidah, going after Problematic White Girl, Joyce Brown, or mounting a harassment campaign against Sarah for narcing on Dana, these things are not going to change the status quo that you despise—they are firmly within its orbit! In trying to gain power to change things, Raidah has become obsessed with the act of gaining said power.
I said on Patreon when Raidah showed up scolding Joyce and Dorothy, correctly, for their “participation” in the protest that it was pretty silly to talk about it due to her most lasting legacy being traumatizing a Black woman for attempting what was, really, self-preservation, but honestly I was barking up the wrong tree: the REAL irony/tragedy of Raidah is that even as she rightfully excoriates Joyce and Dorothy for their nonsense, she is currently engaged in a project to curry favor with Dean McHenry. The same Dean McHenry involved, intimately, in where IU funding goes.
So yeah! The parallels are pretty juicy, I think.
(Also when I say she’s a villain take it with a grain of salt. A big one. She’s nineteen, she’s allowed to be as stupid and shitty just like the protagonists are. I think of her as a villain mostly because she *trends* towards cruelty in a long and measurable arc.)
(Addendum: I’m sure Raidah might believe that by currying favor with the Dean now she can push out Sarah first, THEN lobby him to stop funding genocide.
I think it is also patently obvious her chances are slim on one of those ideas, absolutely nonexistent on the other. Dean McHenry probably would not act to stop funding the genocide if she was his own child, for various reasons. Again: master’s tools, master’s house.)
Sarah also has to work twice as hard for half of what most people get. You don’t see her pulling Raidah’s bullshit. You say it’s no excuse, but I also fail to see how it’s any sort of mitigating factor in her being a terrible human being.
I would venture to say, and I think Dot may have meant, that it’s not a *mitigating* factor so much as it is just the root of her poisoned tree, as it were. Raidah strives because she’s disadvantaged in the USA’s terrible corrupt society, and she’s rightfully angry at that, she wants to affect bedrock change, BUT the way she thinks she can accomplish that, due to mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance, is through vindictive acts of retribution against “bad people”.
As stated above, it’s not all that different from Dorothy’s prior pie-in-the-sky ideal of “If I can just master the reins of this tottering democracy, I can fix its many horrific problems! It won’t eat me alive! Sure, it’s feasted on a thousand progressive young white moderates before me, but I’m built different!”
Dorothy, though, has immense empathy and the power to see that these problems are systemic in nature, whereas Raidah has cut off her empathy and thinks that systemic problems can be solved by bullying the right targets.
So ironically, despite being the one who shattered Dorothy’s ideals, Raidah has even bigger blinders on about how shortsighted and crappy her own ideals are.
And yeah, her treatment of Dina exposes just how lost Raidah is without knowing it—she’d probably say if asked that she’s the farthest thing from ableist! She cut off Char and destroyed him for that moment of ableism, she’d never associate with that in public or any more than she had to! How dare you? She was unfailingly polite! Etc.
But, of course, she’s wrong, and we know differently.
Then why does it matter? She’s got a reason for being a shitty person (despite other people with similar reasons not behaving the same shitty way), so what? So does Robin, so does Mary, so does Carol, so do even worse people in the comic. If someone dosen’t have a reason to behave the way they do that’s just poor character writing.
You started this off by saying people just don’t understand her as if we would think she was less shitty if we did.
The people who hate her don’t hate her because we don’t understand why she behaves the way she does, we hate her because of her behaviours and unlike anyone else in the comic we’re expected to have any empathy or sympathy for she’s taken no action, not even the start of a misguided half baked attempt like Joe handing out donuts post list leak, at being less of a shitty person.
There are nuanced elements of Raidah, but that’s not what Willis has chosen to make the focal point of how she interacts with the main cast and the story. Mostly Raidah plays the role of Mean Girl Queen Bee: She bullies Sarah and continues to do what she can to drive away any friends that Sarah makes (most recently trying to get Billie, Walky, and Lucy to ditch Sarah’s friend group). She was condescending to Dina. She manipulates and tries to use characters so she can social climb. She casually takes digs at Dorothy whenever she sees her. Her three featured friends in her social circle were Chan and Char (who were both notably major jerkass bullies to Dina), and Carl, who has been here the whole time and whose personality is “Dana’s ex-boyfriend who also dislikes Sarah.”
It’s been seven years real-time since Raidah was involved in an arc where she was more than just the mean girl (when Joyce was gunning for Raidah’s relationship with Jacob). If a lot of readers see her as one-dimensional, well, that’s on the author to do more with her.
I feel like some of Raidah’s old characterization conflicts with her more recent depictions. Like the terrible time she condescended to Dina while her friend threw out “retard” in the derogatory. I think that’s why they’re gone and modern Raidah I think would be disgusted by her past behavior. Sure Raidah’s a mean girl but belittling the neurodivergent, minority girl, doesn’t gel with her current politics, beliefs, and behavior, unless she’s a poser on top of everything else? I’d like to see a moment where she reconciles with Dina for that.
I don’t know. I’m a little 50/50 on my analysis now. I went archive diving for evidence and it’s a bit tough for me to decipher the difference between post and pre timeskip Raidah. I did find the moment where she went kinda mask off on Joyce when Jacob dumped her.
Maybe that’s who she really is, but post timeskip Raidah seems a little more ….I don’t know, intelligent? Aware of the struggles of marginalized people at least enough to weaponize guilt against overly privileged white women. That doesn’t seem like the kind of woman that would also infantilize people on the spectrum. Buuuut maybe Raidah’s just better at faking it now.
I don’t really see an contraction, people can have good politics and believe in good things and still be condescending towards disabled people. Especially if they think they are being kind.
This post from the tail end of yesterday’s comments (credit to Nadamás) reminds me that on a Patreon commentary whim I threw together a bunch of Stand names and stats for DOA characters, because I have Jojo’s Bizarre Brainrot in a terminal way
If there is any interest I will throw them up here as well! I don’t know if anyone is Jojopilled like my dumb ass though, so leave a comment if you want to see it
I took a post-work nap, but Taffy asked for it and I am gonna deliver! Here we go! I fiddled with the stats some vs. Patreon, but oh well!
「MISERY BUSINESS」
STAND MASTER: Joyce Brown
STAND TYPE: Close-Range, Natural Humanoid
Destructive Power: C
Speed: A
Range: B
Stamina: C
Precision: D
Developmental Potential: B
Stand Ability: Joyce’s Stand obviously allows for her pinpoint teleportation to the “most important person” she has mentally designated, as has been observed in the comic—as she’s probably our Jojo equivalent I imagine it also has rush attack capacity and uncommon strength, a la 「STONE FREE」or 「STAR PLATINUM」from JJBA canon.
* * *
「RASPBERRY SWIRL」
STAND MASTER: Rebecca McIntyre
STAND TYPE: Long-Range, Reconnaissance, Artificial Humanoid
Destructive Power: C
Speed: B
Range: A
Stamina: B
Precision: C
Developmental Potential: A
Stand Ability: I will level with y’all, I actively conceived of this as “femme Hierophant Green but in lesbian flag colors and it probably uses garnets instead of emeralds. There is a powerful vibe between Becky and both Kakyoin Noriaki and Kakyoin Ryoko in my brain. I gave this one a way better learning stat though because Becky is hungry for knowledge.
* * *
「WOMANIZER」
STAND MASTER: Joseph Rosenthal
STAND TYPE: Automatic, Artificial Humanoid, Foresight
Destructive Power: C
Speed: D
Range: A
Stamina: A
Precision: E
Developmental Potential: B
Stand Ability: First and foremost, this Stand’s ability is a seductive aura and a “powerful sexual kindness”; it is also capable of reading the future for what is the most wingman-like action possible. Like in the cases of Polnareff or Okuyasu, it was formerly used for evil, but since reforming Joe strictly deploys his Stand in the name of virtue.
* * *
「THE COUP」
STAND MASTER: Dorothy Keener
STAND TYPE: Bound/Materialized, Phenomenon
Destructive Power: ?
Speed: C
Range: ∅
Stamina: B
Precision: A
Developmental Potential: ∞
Stand Ability: I’m not quite totally sure on this one. I joked on Patreon that it’d be time stop as long as she Blair Witches in the corner, but I think that’s not quite right and a little too jokey. Since I think the Stand is probably her Fitbit, I could actually see it being localized time alteration that synchronizes with her chosen partner/her emotions—playing on both her need for companionship and desire to control a situation. She’s bad at both, but her potential…!
* * *
「BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN」
STAND MASTER: David Walkerton
STAND TYPE: Automatic, Phenomenon
Destructive Power: ∅
Speed: ?
Range: A
Stamina: A
Precision: D
Developmental Potential: C
Stand Ability: This one I actually have a pretty tight concept for! Basically, it’s an automatic Stand that gives Walky incredible rizz and good luck on his current hyperfixation! Unfortunately when the hyperfixation wanes, the “spell” is broken and the Stand deactivates automatically. Very frustrating to its user! Might manifest in the form of doodles like Walky used to do on math worksheets?
* * *
「WALK THE DINOSAUR」
STAND MASTER: Dina Saruyama
STAND TYPE: Range Irrelevant, Natural Non-Humanoid
Destructive Power: A
Speed: A
Range: ∅
Stamina: A
Precision: ∅
Developmental Potential: D
Stand Ability: The powers of 「WALK THE DINOSAUR」are twofold—one, it, which appears as a feathered, beautiful, and deadly specimen of Utahraptor ostrommaysi whose plumage is translucent and shimmering, grants its mistress the claws, teeth, and incredible destructive force of that prehistoric predator; two, it instantly causes Dina to disappear from the perception of any ‘authority figure’ or ‘impediment’, allowing her perfect camouflage.
* * *
「FINE ART」
STAND MASTERS: Amber O’Malley/Amazi-Girl Justice O’Malley
STAND TYPE: Close-Range/Range Irrelevant, Natural Humanoid, Bound/Materialized, Reconnaissance
Destructive Power: A
Speed: B
Range: D
Stamina: A
Precision: C
Developmental Potential: D
Stand Ability: I feel like this one’s kind of a conceptual mix between essentially a version of the Amazi-Girl suit and King Crimson—with the added twist that unlike the weird power dynamics (and the stupid physical transformation) of Doppio and Diavolo, both alters CAN access the Stand but it comes more naturally to AG. It allows for superhuman strength, health regeneration, incredibly forceful blows more like DIO’s 「THE WORLD」than an average heroic Stand. Ominous, but a force ultimately for good.
* * *
「JAGGED LITTLE PILL」
STAND MASTER: Ruth Lessick
STAND TYPE: Automatic, Artificial Non-Humanoid/Phenomenon
Destructive Power: ∞
Speed: A
Range: ∅
Stamina: ∅
Precision: A
Developmental Potential: D
Stand Ability: A Stand that’s as destructive to its mistress as its enemies—this demonic little fucker feeds on Ruth’s depression and self-hatred to emit a powerful vibration frequency that liquifies the bones of its targets within their bodies. It seems especially targeted against the femurs. Unfortunately, it rampages out of control quickly and causes bone growths to shoot out of Ruth, and is easily fatal if overused.
Walky’s concept is me basically taking his “gifted kid” ADHD (which I also have in spades haha) and making is a supernatural luck power—as long as he can maintain focus on a goal his pathway is assured, fate will arrange things for him. But the problem/weakness is his brain naturally loses focus and what he thought was easy quickly becomes a huge trial when his Stand isn’t activated! His arc in Jojo’s would probably be learning how to synchronize his Stand use with alternative strengths.
Dorothy’s I have to admit I don’t have as solid a concept for, I struggled with what exactly its powerset would be. I just think like, she has really high potential especially now that she’s in her “break the system” era.
Excellent! That’s what I was going for. (I also had a lot of fun lining up musical references because that’s 75% of the joy of Stand design in the first place, is going “what absurd song/album/band name can I attach to this powerset/little guy and have it make sense, kind of?”)
willis i hate to tell you re: the new poll but i’m literally rooting for sal/amazi-girl, roz/mary and sarah/raidah are pretty good, and walky/joe and dorothy/jennifer are solid. i voted dorothy/jennifer just bc it’d be odd to happen after all the dorothy/joyce buildup and satisfaction but all of these ship options are good lmao
also rooting for sal/amazi-girl(/danny?) (& sal/amber tbh), but roz deserves better than mary. walky/joe & dorothy/jennifer have potential but i love sarah too much to subject her to raidah even though it’s always theoretically interesting to do friends to enemies to lovers.
y’know, the logic of trying to clear out all the papers before Becky has a chance to see them instead of just….y’know, seeking Becky down and intercepting? it eludes me
also why 48% of y’all saying Roz/Mary is a cursed ship? that’s like the most basic ass enemies to lovers dynamic that could exist
or is it cursed because we all know that it would only ever get to exist as a oneshot and never a full serialization?
All of the options are about as cursed as two people saying the same thing at the same time and saying “Jinx!”. It’s just that Roz and Mary have the highest potential for homophobic slurs being used during sex, that’s what tips the scales for me.
ah, well if toxic yuri is being consider cursed, then yea, I suppose that would seal the deal. those two would make for some of the most toxic yuri I’ve yet seen
Yes, it makes more logical sense to just talk to Becky instead of trying a wacky hijinks plan.
…Dorothy isn’t exactly operating in a logical mindset, she’s panicking and trying to avoid a conversation she’s assuming will be incredibly difficult and heart-rending.
Maybe it’s just me, but ‘m not sure Raidah knowing would affect much. Is there anything that Raidah would do about it that Dorothy and Joyce won’t do by sneaking into a closet to make out, only to realize they stepped into the main administration conference room while the Dean was on a video call with Joyce’s parents?
I’m here for the recurring gag of Raidah being shown constant evidence that she’s not some genius about The Way People Are and never internalizing that idea.
It feels like the DoA universe is contorting around these two and yet, Asma at least feels immune to the distortion and realizes that… shit is fucky when a newspaper cares more about gossip than police gassing and beating students.
Gods, I really hope Dorothy and Raidah blow up at each other. It feels like both of them need someone to get in their face about stuff, and this is a tense enough moment for it to happen.
Raidah being mad at the comic plot is an a win-win
She’s not wrong. But let her stew.
Every time she’s pulled mean girl stuff on Sarah, Billy , Joyce or Dorothy if backfired on her. Her attempt to suck up to Walky broke up her group, got Sarah a new bf.
She condescended to Dorothy about war crimes and now here we are.
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🔥🔥🔥 This one is for me and the 3 other Raidah heads out there LFG !! 🔥🔥🔥
Also yessss its so good to see more of the Asma snark out on full force
right???
here, have an upvote before i crash at my PC
Love Asma for that.
Raidah’s my favorite antagonist because she’s not a villain.
She thinks she is.
She thinks she’s the most villainy villain.
But she is really. Really. Not.
Yeah, she’s not the biggest asshole around. But she’s an asshole.
I think it’s more that she’s *just* an asshole. Like, a lot of the other assholes are also threats in some way or another, meanwhile thus far her bark has had no real bite to it, even when she has wanted it to. She’s just a petty bully, and frankly kind of pathetic. She can’t actually *do* anything, because she does not wield any power, and attempting to act without power would go against her ego and self-image, so she won’t stoop to that, making her utterly toothless.
To crib from various writers:
Not all villains wear capes. Give her time.
A classic villain opposes the protagonist openly and creates surmountable problems, often made easier when they are revealed. A great villain works in shadow. Their involvement is never obvious or provable. They don’t end lives; they destroy them.
My point is that villain and antagonist aren’t the same thing. Raidah is not a villain. Raidah holds grudges, she has ambitions, she has an immature attitude towards networking, she’s a jerk. These are all kind of ordinary, and things the protagonists in this story do too. They are not villainous, cape or not. If this antagonist is a villain, then our protagonists are greater villains.
I also really wanna like Raidah.
Which is another way of saying I already like her but I want to see more sides of her character.
Agreed! My hope is that this lets us see a new side of her — not to excuse or redeem her other behavior, just to make her a bit less one dimensional.
Very real and true! I think bare minimum I’ll just be grateful if Raidah is given more nuance and things to do even if she stays a noxious antagonistic force the entire time, but in all ways forever and ever I’m always secretly rooting for Raidah to have an MJF style face turn.
Also lmfao if you know you know, but if you know you KNOW you can tell that I haven’t caught up with AEW since 2022.
I am also on this train! Raidah has a lot of unexplored potential, both to continue being kind of awful OR to change and turn face! As much as her last appearance I rolled my eyes pretty hard at her being the messenger, even as she was correct, I can’t say I’m ever tired of seeing Raidah, she’s interesting even when she’s nasty!
woah what webcomic’s(?) art style is that amber(?) rendered in? or whatever it is
you have taste
Glad you didn’t state what kind.
hey now Good was implied 🙂
i do have a “what happens next” style amber icon that used to be my go-to, but this current one is just a sketch i did when i borrowed someone else’s ipad for a few hours to futz around with procreate
I approve of your futzing skills. Er, sketching on borrowed hardware skills.
there are more than one of us 📢💥‼️
Always glad to see another Raidah enjoyer out in the wild.We might not be many but we’re here!
Was that your fan-art of Raidah a few weeks ago? “I like to think I am more mature than most”
Oh yeah, totes! With the exception of one photo edit I did, most of my gravitar icons are just DOA fanart I’ve made throughout the years, albeit with most of them either not being published online or slightly altered to be better suited for a profile icon.
It’s a lovely picture, and the caption and her expression made something click for me. I have an idea why she seems to have something against Dorothy more than just “In Sarah and Joyce’s orbit”.
This is a little late, but it’s very kind of you to say. Thank you!
Turnabout is fair play.
Honestly, Asma has been consistently right every time I’ve seen her.
Dorothy DOES have strong cop energy.
She’s right and she should say it.
yes, this is the correct response.
will probably take a much needed break from the comments on this one
compliment sandwiches are one thing,
but honestly im not in the mood for sifting through mayo, boi 9-9
peace ✌🏽
PeaceVanish.gif
Wait, no, what’s a compliment sandwich?
I think that’s the thing when you say something positive, then negative, then positive to lessen the impact of the negative statement, making it easier to be accepted.
Yes and then the joke is that the comment section today is gonna be a lot of mayo
aka white people like me being in our feelings about Asma and Raidah not being super nice to Joyce and Dorothy.
I THINK today we might be mostly on Asma and Raidah’s side, either bc we agree kissing at the protest being the front page story is BS, or bc we’re (as a group) more annoyed right now with the two of them generally…
But we (as a group) haven’t historically been great about the brown women in this comic being anything other than saccharinely pleasant. Like that is just a very true statement that you can verify for yourself by checking past comment sections. Doesn’t need to involve any conscious feelings, and Raidah at least IS an antagonist (unlike Asma and Roz and Lucy and…), but it’s a noticeable pattern.
I think Roz is kind of an antagonist. Not to the degree of Raidah or the actual-really-bad antagonists, but she’s shown being in the wrong or mildly humiliated several times, and she’s — until quite recently — been at odds with the only cast who really interact with her, Joyce and Dorothy.
Eh… she was only really directly an antagonist for Dorothy in her bid to become RA. I think it’s otherwise a stretch. Joyce and Joe even went to her for help in their most recent interactions!
and Raidah’s eyes became three sizes smaller that day
Optimal chaos ensues.
Omg I loved Hark! A Vagrant. I miss it so much.
Also, this strip made me laugh lol
Also, I think this might literally be the only instance of Raidah being onscreen and not being actively caustic, backhanded, or otherwise terrible. This is our only instance of her being a normal human being, reacting appropriately to Daisy’s Whackfoolery.
Her reaction was also mine when I first saw that newspaper headline.
As far as I can tell, Raidah’s introduction to Sarah back in her flashback might also count. (Pre-Dana fallout of course)
She seems genuinely friendly and her commodifying/social climbing tendencies don’t seem to be present. Hell, she befriends Sarah and gives her solid advice, even though there’s not really anything Sarah can do for her socially.
Nah Raidah has a few strips where she’s fine. People just forget them, because they want to despise her. Raidah is a reasonable person she’s just a bit mean. Frankly this entire comment is probably closer to her than say Joyce
“I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king. AND THE WINGSPAN OF AN ALBATROSS!!!”
Backs away slowly
“I don’t know why the gods protect you.”
well that explains why she remained a virgin, I suppose
I love Kate Beaton’s work so much.
Kate Beaton’s more recent graphic novels are really good too, though they have an extremely different vibe from Hark! A Vagrant
Great stuff. Ducks : two years in the oil sands.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/f7e75739-cc06-4b03-a794-b6f8dc52852f.
Don’t trust people who don’t remember your name.
Look i have mild face blindness and terrible memory if i don’t see you and hear your at least semi regularly i am not gonna remenber your name. Unless uou arw a teacher in that case i am NEVER going to remenber your nsme or your face.
Actual full agreement. I can remember a person by sound and face, but name? Haaaaaaa nooooo. The times I’ve had to start a convo as “Hi, I remember i know you from X place with Y people, but I am atrocious with names, we bonded over our opinion for Z thing. Can I get your name again please?” so many nickles…
I have an uncle that is bassically a running joke with me that i can’t remember his name anytime i see him. (He separated from my aunt so i would pretty rarely see him so he just did not stick in my memory)
Ditto. I have the autism problem where my brain doesnt stop looking for connections, so instead of not recognising anyone, I recognise them everywhere even where they’re not. Unless someone has a really unique feature or I see them all the time I can’t tell whether or not someone with the same skin colour and face shape is them or not.
Word recall is also an issue, so even if I know someone’s name my brain doesn’t always recall it when I need it, or will substitute something with a weird connection (like if someone’s name is Jennifer I might think it’s Rachel because of the actor/character on friends).
I will probably remember your name. I will likely recognize your face. Without constant repetition, the two will not link to each other. As far as I know, I can’t blame autism.
This is why online interactions are great. Half the problem is gone.
Ive managed more than twice to go “urgh what is this guy doing” and only realising once theyre a meter from me that, oh, that was my dad. Last time was at the party the day before his wedding and my cousins thought i was joking whenni questioned why this guy was running from the other house to crash the party.
Now i at least have a TIA to blame for my brain being fuzzy, ive had several relatives i havent recognised and when realising im asking the name of someone ive known my whole life i want to bury myself in a hole
Same here. I would like to apply for an exception to the otherwise cromulent rule.
i literally cannot remember names to save my literal life. if i don’t read your name off a card and make an active conscious effort to memorize it i won’t remember it at all…
Me, person who can’t remember anyone’s names or faces
I misread that as names or feces and was very briefly concerned for why anyone *would* remember somebody by their feces until I realized that first e was an a
I am a cashier who winds up remembering quite a few peoples’ names and faces. Maybe due to that, I have a hard time getting what makes Asma so difficult, unless it’s just “this is a person performing a service, let me treat them more like set dressing than anything else”.
Most people just don’t read the name tags of employees. I don’t think it’s because we see them as lesser (most of the time) but it’s just the sort of things that easily slip from your mind.
There’s also the fact that a lot of memory is context based, so there could easily be important information about someone, like their name, that gets locked to a specific context, so even if you recognize them when encountered outside of that context, you might not remember everything that matters, like their name.
Plus, most of the time when they are interacting with Asma, their focus isn’t on Asma, it’s on the function she is providing, which is to give them their mail. It isn’t really about dehumanizing people in service roles (for most people anyway, some people do indeed suck like that unfortunately) so much as socializing just not being where your attention lies when dealing with them.
I’m a delivery driver, I know a lot of people by their home address rather than their name or face. I might know the name associated with their address, I might know the face associated with their address, but broadly speaking I am more likely to know who someone is if I am informed of their address, at least within Bloomington. This has lead to some awkward moments where I’ve had to stop myself from blurting out somebody’s home address when meeting them in a different context, and some seriously awkward tinder matches where I’ve had to find delicate ways to suggest they replace one of their profile pictures because they inadvertently doxxed themselves by taking the pic on their porch with the house numbers visible because there’s only one street they could live on with a door like that, meaning their full home address is effectively visible on their tinder and I presume most women wouldn’t want that.
When I briefly worked for a pizza place, there were a number of regular customers that we knew by their orders rather than their names or faces. I’m sure there are plenty of equivalents in other professions as well.
It’s not just customers dehumanizing service workers, it goes both ways, because it’s rarely a malicious act and comes as a result of memory being reliant on attention, and when providing a service or having a service provided, your attention is generally on the service, not the person on the other end of it.
Asma does not appear to have a nametag, or at least it has not been obviously depicted in any of her appearances to date, not even in the strip where Asma challenges Walky to identify her name: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/name-2/
This is all kind of weird to me. It’s been a long time since I worked any kind of customer facing retail job, but when I did the last thing I cared about was even repeat customers remembering my name. Honestly weirded me out more if they did.
Obviously, be nice, be polite, don’t be an asshole, but it’s a job, not a social engagement.
She’s a fellow student.
She is a student, but she doesn’t live on the same floor with our main characters and doesn’t seem to share any classes with them. Aside from her job, she’s essentially a stranger to them.
I know this is a bit, but I’m not good at remembering people’s names. Usually it takes me meeting them at least a few times before I can remember.
in all fairness, Joyce and Dorothy did, in fact, remember Asma’s name in a recent strip where they were feeling immense white guilt.
Y’know I thought I picked something pretty innocuous for my bit today but I guess not? No one can remember names. We’re all sus!🤨
Tomorrow, do “Don’t trust people who don’t get the joke.”
Especially if there’s no joke in the strip.
There are jokes in this strip? I’ve been reading for years and haven’t seen a single one. /s
“Oh no, humanity is sus!” does bring it round to making it funnier.
People with memory issues just encounter a LOT of negativity, so it doesn’t hit the same or feel like a joke, and it’s good to educate against biases that cause us harm, is all.
I knew what you were doing but I would NOT be surprised if this was something a real person had genuinely suggested on YouTube or TikTok. There’s a booming grift-y business in convincing your audience that every single thing that’s ever made them even briefly unhappy is actually a red flag for abusers.
(Even as I was typing that out, I had to admit to myself that this is also how right-wing douchebags would characterize trigger warnings (generally) and “not wanting to put up with being misgendered”, but I’m talking about the specific type of influencer who peddles a worldview where friendship = agreeing with you about everything and never trying to discourage even blatant self-harm.)
if it helps i have a doctor’s note for it
I’m dyslexic, and can’t remember names well. As in, I will find a void where the name should be. I then must stare into the void, and it does stare back.
In with the neurodivergent name/face recall struggles. I have afansia too (no visualisation), which does not help.
And I work on reception at times too! – you really realise how bad your face recall is when you are scared of greeting your colleagues for the first half a year there, because your brain subconsciously works by categorising people into fuzzy piles of “Brown hair, medium build [4]” and “blonde with glasses [2]”, no matter how hard you’ve tried to remember.
It sucks.
afantasia* / aphantasia
I am semi-okay with faces, but whenever make up and hair trends get too uniform in an area, it spells my doom. I can’t even tell people apart by hair color when everyone is sporting the same three looks.
So do you trust the regulars at Cheers? Everybody knows your name there.
I used to be really good at it, but dude I’m over 60 and had like two dozen strokes last year. Besides being lucky to be on this side of the soil, I’m lucky if I remember my own name.
glad you have made it through them, lost my grandmother 10 years before she passed to a stroke paraylizing her entire left side, and completely messing with her memory abilities.
:/ sorry for my brain damage, yeesh
I have a scar on my brain right where memory is and can’t remember names.
Nice ablism there buddy.
Asma new main character
…I think I would like this.
Like the TLOU2 switch, without the Zionism narrative.
What are you talking about.
https://time.com/7275781/the-last-of-us-controversy-israel-gaza/
I’m gonna be real with you, if you’re talking about this… it’s some real selective reading to take from that article that the writer, much less the game he contributed to, is pro-Israel.
Do people actually come away from TLOU or TLOU2 thinking “Joel and Ellie sure are righteous people killing only the deserving”, because that is some WILD protagonist-centered morality right there, JFC. The game could not be any more blatant without stopping dead to look you, the player, directly in the eye and saying, “By the way, the main character is doing the wrong thing.”
Joel’s a terrible person who never learned anything from the tragedies that befell him and who actively made Ellie a worse person over time.
P much!
I found another, better article by The Mary Sue talking about this whole thing. More quotes and more context from the writer:
https://www.themarysue.com/hbos-the-last-of-us-reignited-discussion-of-the-games-israel-palestine-politics/
Talking about things the writer has said over time, importantly including that talking about I/P as “cycles of violence” is too simplistic, and making good points about OTHER groups in the game and how they fit in or don’t.
(I don’t like everything he says! He’s said some Things. But this still feels like the internet playing a game of telephone. If you’re going to judge him or the game, do it based on what he’s actually said and what the game actually contains instead of what Twitter’s told you he said and what Twitter’s told you the game contains.)
They were all terrible people who did a lot of messed up things to survive, and some messed up things in general.
But Joel, was the previous game’s protagonist, so he was “our” terrible person.
And the only reason he was able to make Ellie a “worse person over time” is because he saved her life from a surgery she was unable to consent to for an experiment that would probably fail even by the game’s logic (pretty sure you can find audio logs from the doctor about previous failed attempts with other immune people) and would definitely fail in reality (unless I’m mistaken in believing you can’t create a vaccine for a fungus).
Admittedly, Joel didn’t know the odds of success, and would probably do the same thing even if Ellie did consent, because, as you said, he was a terrible person.
Regardless, I know I didn’t get any Zionist message from the game, but it wouldn’t be the first bs take I saw people get from it.
“he saved her life from a surgery she was unable to consent to”
Untrue. They didn’t tell Ellie it was going to kill her, but she clearly knew and she wanted to be the sacrifice. When Joel finally comes clean about what he did, she’s outraged with him for taking that away from her.
“for an experiment that would probably fail even by the game’s logic (pretty sure you can find audio logs from the doctor about previous failed attempts with other immune people)”
I think you’re just confusing memories of what Joel tells Ellie at the end of the first game (that there are lots of immune people and that the attempt to create a vaccine from them failed, explicitly a lie).
“and would definitely fail in reality (unless I’m mistaken in believing you can’t create a vaccine for a fungus).”
I mean the premise is that she has antibodies for whatever disease results from exposure to the spores, I don’t think it’s necessarily a vaccine for fungus.
Anyway the whole game falls apart if you assume that Joel DIDN’T choose to deny the world a chance for a cure, like. That is central to the first and second game’s story.
She didn’t know it was going to kill her because Joel also didn’t know until they told him.
She probably would have said yes regardless, but since she never woke up before they started prepping, they never told her.
No. I’m pretty sure there are audio logs in the second game.
Or it might be the scene with the doctor talking to Marlene.
I’ll see if I can find some mention of them.
If I can’t, I’ll come back and say so.
It’s not a disease.
The fungus actually controls your body, just as it does in reality ants and other creatures (the control part, not the rage zombie part).
It’s part of its reproductive cycle to control the host.
So they do have to prevent the fungus itself from affecting people, and I don’t think there are fungus antibodies (but I could be wrong).
I know some of her friends feel that Joel took away the chance for a cure, but Abby just wants revenge (which is fair).
And I say that because there seems to be no attempt to find another doctor nor to find the immune girl.
As messed up as the world is, it’s hard to believe that he was the only qualified doctor left or that they can’t train new ones.
It wouldn’t be easy, but if your goal is too save humanity, it’s worth trying.
Besides, just because we can find out they had failed experiments (again, I’ll try to verify if I’m pulling this out of thin air), that doesn’t mean they’re aware.
Found two YouTube videos.
1st one is Marlene and the doctor talking about not telling Ellie and just doing the surgery
That implies they, at least, did not think she would agree to sacrifice herself.
That said, it also seems to be the first time Marlene is hearing about a fatal surgery, so there don’t seem to be previous attempts.
2nd video was Ellie finding a recording tape from a firefly saying it was pointless to go after the immune girl because they were told no one else could make a vaccine (still think they can try to find or train more, but whatever).
And for a bonus round of me being wrong ChatGPT (so take it with a grain of salt) says there are no fungus vaccines for humans YET, but there are experiments going on for different fungi and also that there are already vaccines for things like ringworm in animals.
So yeah, almost everything I said was wrong.
ChatGPT doesn’t get a grain of salt from me it gets barrels. It doesn’t “know” anything, and if you ask it to answer even slightly complicated questions, it will just make things up because that’s faster than doing anything else, and it was programmed to prioritize speed.
For the record, when I said this part, They didn’t tell Ellie it was going to kill her, but she clearly knew and she wanted to be the sacrifice, I am referring to how Ellie seems surprised to wake up — and how mistrustful she is of Joel’s response — and how later, when he admits to it, she berates him for taking away a chance for her life to have meant something.
I’ll admit that “clearly” was overstating things, but I think it’s VERY strong implied that Ellie suspected the cure would kill her even though no one said as much, and that she had accepted that. Frankly, after what she went through in the story segment where you play as her, which takes place right before all of this… I think she was in a kind of deep depression, and was very okay with not ever waking up. 🙁 🙁
(But also, hey, we’re cool 🙂 Thanks for going looking on YouTube to find video sources!!)
I’m reasonably certain there was no intention to make a vaccine. Ellie was infected with a mutated version of the fungus that was benign. The existence of that fungus prevented her from being infected with the deadly version. I’m pretty sure the intention was to cultivate and infect everyone with the benign version to prevent them from being vulnerable to the deadly version.
SWITCHING THE POV CHARACTER HALFWAY THROUGH.
Jesus god damn Christ.
right, that’s not the part I was confused about?
“without the Zionism narrative.”
this is the part I was confused about.
Oh okay! Gotcha, sorry.
I have not played TLOU2 but I am given to understand there are… poorly thought out parallels to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (some argue otherwise). A DOA character switch wouldn’t have that and so would be better.
Okay. I would suggest you read the links I provided up above bc I think that’s a very uncharitable read of the games and the things the writer has said, and you might or might not agree, but it would behoove you to actually know what he said.
if it’ll move the comic away from its “let’s see who I can ship with who this time” tendency it’s had for the last hell of a while, I’ll take it.
I never noticed that before but you’re right, since the kidnapping it’s been very shippy lol
Nah, we’d just start figuring who to ship Asma with.
Loving that Asma side-eye!
To borrow a phrase from earlier, she shows just the right amount of spite for me.
I need more Asma sass. And more interactions with her and other characters in general.
I need more Asma’s ass interacting generally with the other characters.
Particularly Walky.
This is a reply to Kyulen and Taffy.
that could be a very nice pairing, but more asma and more raidah being made angry bu everyone around her not caring about her
Though to be fair, working THAT desk seems like it would motivate one to want to never interact with the characters.
Except Dina, of course. One socially-expected question and done? Perfectly autistic and gay? May all public-facing employees be so lucky.
at least what the three-fourths of a fuck is it, anyway
All they gotta do is read the tags to remember each other’s names smh
I am very thankful for More Asma, twas an excellent decision.
Raidah is Satan incarnate for recognizing people she’s met. How fucking dare she. And after noticing there were no newspapers in her wing, even.
Noticing things is one of the worst things someone can do, frankly I’m insulted Willis would even depict such a thing
(This is a joke for anyone that cant tell)
huh i never noticed
I love the little gag of her being confused why all the newspapers are gone in her dorm. I know it’s only calling back to yesterday, but little details like that make yesterday’s joke even funnier to me and make the comic world feel a bit more alive!
Honestly, I’m surprised she remembers Dorothy.
Oh huh, I was not expecting Raidah to be a complicating factor in this. But now that she’s here, I know she’s going to be somehow.
Hi Asma!
Are you sure it’s Joyce? Might be Jocelyne…
Addressed to Raidah, obvs, not the readership. Hah! Readership. Bet nobody made THAT joke before!!!
Admittedly, no one ships the readers with anyone.
Except maybe Readers x Dina.
Ok, that does kinda disprove it.
I don’t think she has any idea Jocelyn exists. Also, if the art style can be trusted, Jocelyn just looks like a taller Joyce with slightly shorter hair anyways.
I choose to believe that panel 4 is Asma intentionally not giving very much information for the same reason that she didn’t want to cooperate with Joyce and Dorothy at the protest to find Jocelyn.
Granted, Asma and Raidah might know each other from their mosque, etc, so there may be less concern about cop energy, but it does feel like she’s intentionally giving an extremely vague response, probably because it’s really not a great idea to share information about the protest and its participants with people who weren’t present. It’s just bad form.
Well I think there’s more than one mosque in Bloomington. There’s no confirmation they go to the same one.
Certainly possible. I believe the population is around 80,000, so even if all I am currently finding is the Islamic Center of Bloomington with a quick search, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility, be it there or a neighboring city.
There are over a million people in Tucson and qe have one mosque and maybe two or three Islamic centers.
But at least we’re finally getting a Shake Shack.
Google and Yelp do seem to show that that is in fact the only mosque in Bloomington proper. Without knowing whether or not they have cars, it is probably a safe bet to say that they both go to the closest mosque(if they regularly go at all).
Asma’s not a narc, even if she doesn’t like you for very good reasons.
I don’t think she’s protecting their identities, just showing complete disdain.
It can be two things.
Yeah I’m pretty sure Dorothy has made a concerted effort to remember Asma’s name and called other characters on it. For the brief semester I went to college and lived in a dorm I worked the front desk. The only people who knew me by name were the RAs.
Maybe that’s why I like Asma so much. I requested her magnet for the previous Kickstarter. Then on a reread of the comic remembered Nash was a character and seriously panicked I’d mixed them up. I like Nash, too, and that used to be my last name.
Yes, she made her opinion on naming people at the protest quite clear. She wasn’t about to out them.
“I choose to believe that panel 4 is Asma intentionally not giving very much information for the same reason that she didn’t want to cooperate with Joyce and Dorothy at the protest to find Jocelyn.”
this was immediately the vibe i got as well. after all, you can’t really say raidah doesn’t also, herself, have narc energy?
Raidah would absolutely narc on anyone who got in her way, with the lone excpteion of Sarah’s Freshman roommate, evidently
Raidah would have narced on her in an instant if she’d gotten in Raidah’s way. Since she was only in Sarah’s way, however, narcing on her was an unforgivable sin.
so that new poll, I just wanna say
NONE of these ships are cursed, because all of them are gay. Most of them also imply massive leaps in character development for almost all characters involved, which would be *deeply* fascinating to see play out.
The ACTUAL most cursed ship is Joyce/Walky. Straight, played out, would involve regression instead of progression. No one wants to see that happen ever again, it’s all over for a good reason.
Runner up is Alice/Ruth. Oh my god could you imagine????? AHHHH I got scared just thinking about it??????? AAAA
Sarah/Raidah would have the most *epic* of hatefucks…
A beautiful disaster I’ve been longing for
But Alice/Ruth would be a gay ship, and you just said none of them can be cursed because they’re gay?
Listen I’ve been going to bat a lot about being accepting of all queer identities, but idk if i could welcome whatever those two would have going on into my community OxO
SLASH JAY, EVERYONE! SLASH ELLE AYCH!!!
Any ship involving Mary in any configuration is inherently curse and i am gald we that’s agreed upon
the idea of Mary not only ending up gay somehow, but ending up gay *with Roz* would cure one of my various illnesses, I think. Like yes, hypothetical queen, tear down those structures of racism and homophbia within you. Eradicate that slut-shaming misogyny.
This would never happen, but the idea of it implies such a shift that I would never turn down the chance
Honestly, I think it’s still cursed because the main way I can see that happening is if Mary does realize she likes girls but then also Roz gets worse, because the intersection between them is “lesbians who are theoretically feminist but hate 90% of women for making their theory harder”, y’know TERFs, SWERFs, racist second wavers, et al..
I, don’t know how Roz is even remotely close to that.
She’s not, but like, Mary isn’t really either. The closest intersection is pretty far away.
I have seen real human beings make that specific heel turn; people who talk a good game but don’t really care about others going conservative after college don’t always go full tilt right-wing.
I vote Mary x Malaya as Most Cursed
oh god, your brain is beautiful and horrifying
I think Roz and Mary would become the yin to each other’s yang but in an evil way. Maybe Mary learns how to not to be a terrible person, but I fear this ship would have Roz become a nun or something by the end.
I unironically have been shipping three outta the five ships on that poll, it’s genuinely really fucking funny to see them get called cursed lmfao
Seriously, Dorothy and Jennifer have been about two inches away from hatefucking the last couple times they’ve interacted.
Three out of the five are too unlikely to make a good cursed ship. Dorothy and Jennifer aren’t bad enough to be cursed. This leaves Sal/Amazing Girl by default.
Who are, of course, behind in the poll.
Of course they are — enemies to rivals to friends to lovers? That’s not cursed, that’s basically the recipe to most slashfics on AO3.
I’d like Sal/Amazi-Girl to happen primarily to see Jennifer’s reaction to seeing them in one place. Bonus if she keeps insisting they’re the same person.
actually disagree because anything with mary is cursed
also raidah involvement involves some curse
the rest tho’ yeah it’s like “this is mildly cursed at most” and some of them are kinda good
(i also separately built out a reply while this was all happening up here so lol)
The idea of Raidah/Sarah implies that they either kill the beef, find a common ground, and join to become the ultimate “Not mad, just disjointed” mom friend, OR they hate each other so much more than normal that they can’t do anything but fuck about it anymore. Either option, in my opinion, would be a *blessing* on the world, not a curse.
Why would they kill Steven? They barely know the man.
I figured it’d be funnier to use his legal name, that Tony so kindly reminded us of, instead of his colloquial name
But Tony and Beef are two different people.
You should probably reread my comment again. I didn’t say they were lol. I said Tony had reminded us that beef’s real name was Steven. It’s in literally the newest page beef is on screen for.
One of the two of us doesn’t know what “cursed” means. Might be me, might be you, I’m hesitant to speculate.
Joyce Walky OTP. He does have to die and become a god first, though.
Re, POLL: Roz/Mary was my obvious choice, mostly because Roz would turn it into OF content and I’d find that Slipshine hilarious
wait i want alice/ruth so bad now. that’s such a good idea. can you imagine how insane that would make jennifer. I think she would actually for real turn into a supervillian, that would be great
all of the ships in the poll are painfully pedestrian, if Willis wanted a REAL cursed ship poll it’d be full of like, ships nobody has ever considered and would make one’s skin crawl once one does; like Dina/Jason or Agatha/Blaine or any other truly awful things one could concoct.
(but if im being real, the real reason i shake my fist at the poll is bc as much as i see the vision re: Dorothy/Jennifer i must admit my heart belongs to Dorothy/Becky when it comes to Dorothy Hatefuck Yuri)
What was that incredible alt text joke from back in the day? “Continuing the trend, tomorrow’s strip will feature a third couple waking up together, except it’ll be something totally wild like Galasso/Mary”
Okay. I would read that.
>Dina/Jason
NO!
NO! GOD, PLEASE, NO
NO
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jason and Dina agree to date as a sensible intellectual match. Jump-cut to next morning, Jason on all fours in a gimp mask and leash, Dina sitting on his back eating a bowl of cereal.
i raise you all:
joe/carol
joyce/mary
blaine/toedad… i think if doa had a different audience there would be at least one person earnestly making cutesyfied blaine and toedad yoai (not even toxic just with them holding hands or whatever which is worse somehow)
joyce/mary happens in the doa bad timeline where they were assigned roommates,and joyce gloms onto her as her first outside-world friend/repressed crush. mary gradually shapes her in her own image (republican fanartist)
sorry i had this wretched vision and must burden you all with it
I would read the fuck out of that AU fanfic.
(Also if we’re really going for cursed ships I’m kind of surprised and relieved that nobody’s crossed the line into any particularly problematic stuff. I’m not going to start but yeah can definitely think of some much more cursed stuff than anything that’s been mentioned without even getting into anything that would be out of place on ao3.)
i was just hinking the same and so far on my scroll i have yet to see any truly cursed pairings/polycules
Sal x Dean McHenry?
Charles x Beef?
Robin x Leslie’s Ex-Husband?
Jacob x Lucy x Ryan polycule?
I’m in the same ‘None of these ships are cursed’ boat. The closest for me is Roz/Mary because Mary’s kinda gross and somebody mentioned the possibility that they could make each other worse which is a terrifying thought, but yeah my assumption was like you that it would arise from/lead to major deconstruction on Mary’s part and maybe lead to her getting some character growth? Which would be pretty cool. And like, I can see the two of them antagonising each other into having some sort of relationship and things progressing from there, like this isn’t even the first time this ship has crossed my mind, I have the vessel built and floating in the harbour just awaiting the signal to set sail.
None of these ships are truly cursed. None of them involve Faz.
why curse the rest of us with having to remember his existence
Rachel/Faz
Honestly at this point I am actually curious what the golden path for Joyce/Walky to happen in this universe would be. I have to assume it involves Dorothy straight up dying.
Considering that David Willis has specifically stated the intention not to repeat non-DoA pairings in DoA, I assume it’d involve bribery.
Well sure but I’m speaking from a strictly in-universe perspective here.
Probably requires Walky going to another school / not dating Dorothy and only coming into Joyce’s life at a later point
No no no I’m talking about Joyce and Walky, in this strip, moving forward from this point. What circumstances would need to transpire from this point to get them together?
Walky would need to transition.
This reply feels like it’s veering very close to denying Joyce’s bisexuality tbh!
You. You keep talking
You know that strip where Dorothy, Walky, and Joyce fall asleep watching cartoons together? I’m thinking golden path would involve Dorothy dating both of them and a lot more situations like that happening, for a start
Okay, whoever did the whole “this is not a place of honor” quote for the comic a couple days ago?
You shot too early, *this* is gonna be the Chernobyl comment section.
nah, these are two characters who are so fully done with Joyce’s everything that the comments are, for once, just going to be everyone nodding and politely humming “No yeah for real” before moving on.
Likes to charge reblogs to cast
I feel weird for agreeing with Raidah, but otherwise, I’m cool with it.
Weird how we’re suddenly worried bout the tear gas though, maybe Asma has asthma?
onlyreasonIsaiditwasforthejoke.
Booooooooo
(I’m proud of you, you did a good thing)
Raidah is an asshole but she’s usually got a point
That would be great. Please!
At this point it’s normal for people in these comments to be getting into arguments about everything. Which is why I always find it weird when someone posts a comment along the lines of “surely we’ll have normal comments today”.
It’s even weirder on days like today when the update is so lacking in controversial topics.
Like, sure, Raidah sucks. But this whole strip is literally just her going “…Whaaaaat??” Not a whole lot to whip ourselves into a frenzy over.
i mean she did it better in my gravitar
Every time someone says that I just assume it’s a scream of anticipatory terror because they know everyone will soon be fighting everyone else
Hey. Willis gave us a whole new poll to argue over.
It’s going to keep being that way if people who love arguing insist on jumping on every thread to argue, for sure!
wrt the most cursed ship pairing walky/joe doesnt seem all that cursed ehh depending on the time window
I can’t see it. Joe, if he thinks of Walky at all, thinks of him as some little twerp. Also, I haven’t seen anything to make me think Joe is bi.
I just reread a strip where Sal is courting Danny and Joe is in disbelief. He quips, “Is this happening because I’m not bi? Do I have to be bi?” and I think he’s commented on guys being attractive (Like Walky being mistaken for Sal or Sal being hot despite just being fem Walky).
Asma doesn’t get nearly enough love, I swear. What a queen.
Raidah’s probably thinking “damn I had those white girls’ number exactly” right about now
Nah, she’s too busy being upset that Joyce is now more popular than her.
Raidah has never been about popularity, this isn’t high school. She’s about networking and connections.
she’s mad joyce is getting more publicity than her.
Again she doesn’t care about that. Why would she be jealous of Joyce being identified as a public face of a protest which police violently put down?
because in my life the people i have had to deal with who have behaved in the manner raidah does, that is how the reacted, like i had a coworker who took raidahs attitude to the extreme, and adsolutely unreasonably hated on anyone who got any form of attention they didn’t. we ahd someone from the office recognized in the community for their volunteer work in a local paper, and all they did was complain that this person was undeserving of reconition simply becuase “they onky volunteered for the recognition” and what they volunteered doing (the recipiant had been a 20 year youth coach) was “unworthy of being celebrated” went to highschool with a girl who had an absolute breakdown cause one of the other cast memers of the school musical was on the poster (even though they were a sid echaracter who had 6 lines and only sung as part of the corus and the pictured student was the male lead).
also i said mad not jealous. her anger doesnt stem from wanting the attention joyce is getting but the fact that joyce is getting any attention at all. to her joyce isnt worthy of anyone anywhere giving her attention. not saying she doesnt have a good reason to be mad at joyce. just that the vibe she gives me is the same as the people i have described above. she gives me the heebie jeebies i get from people who view everyone around them as npc in their life that are supposed to exist to make her successful
I don’t think this is the kind of publicity Raidah wants
but she would be able to put that she was on the front page of her campus paper and that is something that can be used as a means o differntiating her for others for the purpose of climbing the ladder
This is not publicity Joyce and Dorothy can leverage for social capital lmao
She doesn’t want to be “different”. She wants to make socially-advantageous connections – I don’t know that she disdains friendships that don’t advantage her, but she clearly prioritizes the ones that do.
I get the feeling that she’s more astonished – she’d filed Joyce in her mental rolodex as “fundie kid, harmless, no value”, and there the “fundie kid” is, macking on “maybe future politician, keep lines open” right there in public! Girls kissing, yeah, fine, whatever – but these girls???
(I also agree with others that Asma’s a little dismissive of Dorothy’s apparent reason for being there, but other than that is deliberately “not remembering” the names of anyone else she saw at the protest.)
Never discuss people who were at a protest with you publicly, no matter what. Asma understands the importance of opsec.
I mean she definitely has personal animus for Joyce re: Jacob. She’s made that clear repeatedly. Joyce could be eating crackers minding her own business and past interactions would still have Raidah thinking “what a bongo”.
Obviously that doesn’t make her envious (?????) of this publicity or someone who wants to be popular (that’s literally Jennifer, Jennifer has been all about wanting to be popular, and Lucy has also wanted popularity), but yeah I just don’t want it to get lost that Joyce is very much her nemesis, from Raidah’s perspective.
An aside, but I do like that Asma’s name is, well, Asma. Extremely easy to spell and say. It fits the running gag that it’d be very simple for these folks to commit it to memory, but they’re so caught up in their own mess typically that they probably don’t register her much, or it’s someone like Walky where he’s just ridiculously lazy about that sort of thing.
She’s staff at the college. They don’t know Puddinghead’s name either.
They do interact with Asma more often, but yeah, I get that they probably don’t treat it as an especially intimate experience.
They know her last name though (Ms. Bishara), which is more than they can say for Asma.
It’s 45 years later, and I still remember the name of the cashier at our student union cafeteria.great sense of humor, cute as a button black girl with a marvelous ‘fro. I asked her out once and got politely shot down and neither of us were weird about it later.
Oh, her name was Dorian. Dorian Duran.
Golly, what a feat of memorization it was to recall “Dorian Duran” in 1980
At least she wasn’t invisible, and neither of you was immature enough to come undone over it. When someone’s turned down, the reflex to be a hothead and make it a big thing can be pretty hard to fight.
It’s funny because the running gag started with her not knowing Walky’s name either, but him expecting her to. I don’t think her name had even been used in the comic at that point (tags and maybe patreon strips aside).
Is it even so much about remembering her name as ever learning it? She doesn’t seem to wear a name tag.
their outfits compliment eachothers very nicely
twinsies….
I gotta say, the “our wing’s missing newspapers” bit is hilarious.
Yeeessss Asma, give us a vitriolic broadside. You have earned it and then some
I wonder if Raidah knows Asma’s name. I’d say it’s an equal chance she doesn’t or she does, depending on whether knowing the name of a RA is important to her or not.
if she’s actually smart about her “Using people to get ahead” thing, she would know Asma by name. Asma runs the mail, and Raidah *should* know that you *always* treat the janitors, secretaries, and food staff well, since they hold the keys to getting anything actually done inside the corpo world.
And often know more of what’s going on than people further up the food chain, because people ignore them and say things in front of them they might not otherwise.
And they literally hold the keys to getting seen by the higher ups. You know who setting that calendar for Bigwig Von Monopoly? Their secretary. You know who has spare keys to the nicer bathrooms when you’re about to find out if Doordash can buy you new pants? Janitor.
Asma would have had almost no side-eye moments if people weren’t oblivious about saying dramatically stupid things in front of her desk.
“When you control the mail, you control…information!”
Asma’s not an RA, she works the front desk. In most dorms it’s a different type of role, much more clerical/administrative and no expectation that you’ll be a mentor/emotional support to the residents.
new poll:
roz/mary: extremely cursed, my vote
sarah/raidah: also highly cursed, not my vote but respect
dorothy/jennifer: mildly cursed at most
walky/joe: crack pairing, sure, but cursed? how is this cursed?
sal/amazi-girl: actually kinda good why is this in the list? xD
Sal/AG would KICK ASS!!! It would turn into more of a toxic codependent nightmare than Billie and Ruth by the end, but oh my god would there be FIREWORKS!!!
Here’s my take:
Roz/Mary: Roz is so sex-positive and Mary is so repressed, I could see her cracking and going to the Known Sex-Haver to just Do the Thing. Very fanfic trope-y, but those are the waters I tread, so. Not that cursed to me!
Sarah/Raidah: This was my second choice, but I reasoned myself out of it by thinking about how similar and competitive they ARE and seeing that easily devolve into a hate-sex-turned-enemies-to-lovers arc.
Dorothy/Jennifer: No curse here. Jennifer’s a horny bongo mess, if things with Joyce get Too Complicated and go bad, very easy to see the two of them doing a Trash Roof Remix type situation.
Walky/Joe: Most cursed. They just do not mesh at all and Joe is so Straight that while Walky has at least shown some awareness of other dudes’ hotness, I just can’t see any situation where they are Together. No chemistry, nothing pulling them together, I just don’t see it.
Sal/Amazi-Girl: 0 curse, I ship it.
I’m with you, especially on Joe-Walky.
Walky Joe just hasn’t been written. But there is nothing in the narrative making it impossible. Walky admires joe a little. Joe is attracted to Sal. It’s not nothing.
Some people are attracted to the little guy big guy thing.
I am SO here for Sal/AG it would be great.
Which is funny because I very much ship Walky/Amber.
There’s no contradiction there, though there could be scheduling issues.
Raidah is an interesting wrinkle. Go get em
Asma is just glad that the fundamentalist and undercover cop are on the cover instead of actual protestors.
… I’m not entirely sure why Raidah would have such a strong reaction. She seemed to be incredibly dismissive of both of them on most occasions.
Because Joyce broke up her relationship?
She dismisses them *because* they get under her skin, moreso Joyce.
She made an entire evil plan to make Joyce not have friends. But this is smooching.
For all the reasons listed, and also because I’m pretty sure she still thinks Joyce is a fundamentalist Christian
Speculating here: Because Raidah is in a conservative religion and has picked up homophobia? Because, as some straight men are freaked out by gay guys, some straight women are freaked out by lesbians? Because Raidah is self-hating gay herself? She didn’t, after all, show much interest in having sex with Jacob. Which is to say, not any interest.
And by “not any interest”, she turned down an offer once. Right after she saw Joyce being all flirty with him.
The strip in question, I think: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/fool/
Well Joyce is on her shit list. I can’t remember if Dorothy did anything to pass her off.
She is also annoyed that kiss was front in center instead of the actual protest. I knew readers are not going to like that. Daisy might be removed from editor soon because of this.
Dorothy is a friend of Joyce and that’s enough to put her on Raidah’s shit list.
She could be annoyed about the coverage of the protest, but she doesn’t actually say that here, she’s focused on it being Dorothy and Joyce. Which fits well with when she ran into them coming back from the protest and asked if they “got the attention they wanted”.
She regards Dorothy as an annoying and self-righteous white girl whose life’s ambition is to be a war criminal.
Raidah is barely adjacent to Joyce and Dorothy, and not at all to this arc, and yet I know this appearance of her bodes poorly for them somehow.
Also, hi Asma 🤭
joyce is sarahs friend, sarah is not allowed to have anything cause she crossed raidah (ensuring a friend gets the necessarymedical attention to me is far more imoortant than that their arents can help me get ahead, but i do not see others as npc’s in my life) there for joyce is not allowed to have anything either.
and yes raidah does have reasons to hate joyce that are seperate and valid but the joke is more fun to me to focus on sarah and radaih here
Raidah bodes poorly for everyone.
I know people asked this yesterday, but is the IU paper really getting that many readers?
Willis is the god of this universe so if he decides that college students in this day and age still bother to read newspaper so it shall be.
Most days? Nope.
Buuuuuuuuuut the state government sent police to launch an attack on an encampment of protestors, firing tear gas and other less-lethal munitions causing a not insignificant amount of chaos.
Among other impacts… that’s gonna move some newspapers.
I think it would still be more of a viral social media thing. If anything, with students checking the paper’s website.
Paper works better visually. Not a big deal.
I imagine Raidah had strong opinions on Bulmeria.
I imagine she had strong opinions on whichever way the wind was blowing.
The hate of Raidah is strong despite aside from being rude to Dina (and I’m neuroatypical so it pissed me off), she’s been the victim of the heroes more than the reverse.
accept she has actively (poorly thankfully) tried to destroy the friend group, for the only reason that they put a smile on sarahs face.
She’s also a user who talks shit about her friends (Jennifer) behind their backs.
Jennifer is not her friend, she is part of Raidah’s Machiavellian scheme to destroy Sarah and Joyce’s friend group. We haven’t seen her talk shit behind the back of anyone she actually likes.
Also: it’s not like the scheming comes from nowhere, it’s expressly her trying to get revenge for Joyce’s whole crummy “tempting Jacob and causing him to end his relationship with Raidah” scheme. It’s like, a bit disproportionate, maybe, but I think mostly in terms of like… Raidah being a more formidable opponent than either Sarah or Joyce took her for.
(I also wonder if she actually THINKS she’s lying when she says things like “Jennifer is healing from a toxic friend group by being with us”. Not because she thinks she likes Jennifer, but because she might legitimately feel like Sarah and Joyce are such bad people to be around that even just being polite to Jennifer’s face is an improvement.)
Yay more asma! I kind of worry about her “normal woman in a teen drama world” vibe getting lost with her becoming more of a focused on character, but well see if Willis is able to pull it off, I have faith
As a writer myself, I’m always impressed by Willis’s plotting, his characterization, his buildups, his transitions. He’s really good. (Not buttering up a guy I don’t even know. Just like his work.)
Can we just ignore all this other bullshit and do an Asma arc please?
Yes, it should consist of her waiting for people to ask for vacuums to clean their rooms like a sane person.
Twenty pages of Asma doing normal front desk tasks. Do it Willis, you coward
Like Lawsome!, each episode follows the exact same format with a different person each week checking out a vacuum cleaner and getting utterly pwned by Asma
“Asma this is your manager. Why the hell are you attacking people instead of letting them rent the equipment, you are TURBO fired”
And then the rest of the comic’s run is Asma being a loose cannon maverick vacuum-cleaner vigilante
Leading inevitably to the origin of Robo-Vac
suddenly realizes you’re allowed to do things like that, 25 years on, deer in headlights stare
Oh wow I bet I missed a lot of things moving into the dorms in spring term.
If I’d somehow managed to start college early enough to get into a dorm, I guarantee I’d never have considered asking the person at the front desk if I could borrow their vacuum cleaner. Why would I assume they had one? I’d either look for a janitor who could help or take one from the nearest Walmart.
It’ exactly the sort of detail they would mention (more than once, probably) during Freshman Orientation; and after a couple of weeks you would have almost certainly witnessed friends and acquaintances in your dorm checking them out and returning them
This must be either a new thing or an “only some colleges” thing, because I never witnessed anyone checking out vacuum cleaners.
Oh, yeah, it definitely wasn’t A Thing back when I was in college
It was a thing when I was in college 25-30 years ago, but I went to a fuckoff big college, too.
Which is really just proof that you didn’t live in a undergrad dorm at a big school, because practically the first thing they tell you on move-in day is that any and all logistics requests start at the mailroom/front desk clerk — loaner cleaning apparatus, the sign-up sheets to reserve the big-screen TV lounge, troubleshooting adding money to your laundry card, you name it.
(in one notable case when I was an undergrad, “reporting that you were afraid someone had mailed you anthrax”.)
Yeah, there was no reality in which I ever attended a “big school”. One year at the local community college in my 30s, that’s what the cards had in store.
Lmfao Asma is in like 15 strips and she’s now my favorite character.
I now fully support Daisy’s decision to put Joyce and Dorothy macking on the front page of the newspaper, just because it pisses Raidah off.
I mean to be fair, I think we kind of have a “worst person you know just made a great point” thing with raidah here, she is, for once in her life, justifiably angry bout something
Especially if she knows Dorothy and Walky were together at the time, because Joyce has done this before, at Raidah’s expense. I can imagine that poking at a sore spot for her and as terrible as she is, she’s also got every right to feel raw about the breakup and the reason behind it.
Honestly, I don’t think she would have caught up at that point. Last she knew, Lucy was with Walky.
She knows that Lucy and Jacob are together now.
Yeah I remember that there was a relationship-update strip where Raidah learned about some new pairings, I just don’t recall who was on the list aside from Sarah and Tony. But if she does know that Joyce once again kissed someone who was committed to another person, oof, yeah, I can see and understand Raidah having strong feelings about it.
watch this be the city living mini-arc where we get to follow every minor background character on their way to pick up the news while getting insight on their background character lives
Can’t wait for the Steamed Hams equivalent.
Everyone this is my boyfriend be nice to him he’s new
well dang now everyone knows i have the capacity to love and be loved, my cool mysterious new cool guy vibes are totally in ruins!
omg i remember you talking about him reading DOA in the patreon! wont say much else bc we don’t know each other like that but it’s very sweet and cute and i also personally know how fun it is too to have a partner that also reads this comic.
Jay, i hope you enjoy the rest of this chapter, and kudos to getting to the point where you can get the full 24h daily upload experience lol.
From the Decks of the World: The Chicks Smooching Licky-Style Arc
INT. — WILLIS’ LAIR, THE REACTOR CORE
WILLIS: Yesssss. Yesssss! The work of but one strip featuring Joyce yoinking Dorothy and already the psychic anguish flows! It will feed the core enough for a millennium…
(A beat of silence)
WILLIS: But I require…more. Raidah! I summon you! Bring me…DISCOURSE.
(From the shadows, RAIDAH emerges, bowing low and smirking.)
RAIDAH: Your will be done, Lord Willis.
When I heard that Willis had gone back and added more strips of Muslim characters reacting to the protest fallout, I’ll admit my expectations weren’t terribly high. But this one works for me. It doesn’t feel too shoehorned or superficial, and I like that Asma gets to have a dig in at all the characters who have routinely taken her for granted for 10+ years.
I also am intrigued by the potential for Raidah to get involved here. Not because I like her as a character but because it might be interesting to get a different side of her. She’s usually so condescending as to be unwatchable, but this role in the story could change that.
P.S. Yes, I’m aware this could’ve been a planned strip even before the rewrites, most of my statement still stands
I got the feeling from some of their comments that this story arc was going to happen either way, and narratively it doesn’t feel unexpected to me, but I’d assume it has been fleshed out better for sure, and will be less likely to be ‘forgotten’ in the future narrative than it may have been otherwise.
Well the, not problem per say, but difficulty of giving more screen time to a character like Asma is the same reason she hasn’t had much before. She’s a background character without really any connection to the larger social group all the other major characters are a part of. The comic already has such a large cast.
yeah stealing the papers was never going to work, they know plenty of people outside their floor and building (and also like, there’s gotta be more than one newspaper distribution spot in there anyway)
my thoughts:
– I think Raidah is going to (rightfully) be like “hey look at these white assholes making the protest about them and distracting the papers from the point” (both of the protests, and the point that cops were ready to shoot at students)
– Raidah might out them to people other than Asma [by saying ‘the gays in that photo are Dorothy and Joyce,’ I mean, seeing as the image does already out them a bit], but I’m not wholly convinced it’ll be on purpose, especially since many people have assumed Joyce is bi before, and Raidah may think she’s out already. Like, Raidah is absolutely petty and mean enough, but on the other hand in the part where Char and Chan called Dina the r-word, she did have that “we’re in the WORLD” moment about how you shouldn’t say shit like they did. so she might have morals not to out them on purpose
– that said I could see her going “look at these assholes, and these assholes are Joyce and Dorothy” without even considering the outing angle
(don’t get me wrong, the reporting is also Daisy’s fault, but they gave her something to report on)
(also don’t get me wrong, I don’t think by any means that Joyce and Dorothy planned this [but I’ve seen one or two comments to that effect on previous pages so I felt the need to clarify])
Dorothy tried so hard, and didn’t get very far at all, and in the end it doesn’t even matter
(But her flailing is fucking adorable)
“– I think Raidah is going to (rightfully) be like “hey look at these white assholes making the protest about them and distracting the papers from the point” (both of the protests, and the point that cops were ready to shoot at students)”.
Eh I worry how it would come off having specifically raidah critique Joyce and Dorothy like this, I think it could risk coming off like its villanizing the critique of Joyce and Dorothy by having raidah, usually an antagonist character, be the one saying it
that’s fair. I’d say maybe it could be used to pull Raidah back into neutral territory but after everything with not just Joyce and Sarah, but Dina and Billie and Walky, it’s probably too late for that.
Raidah is an antagonist but she’s not usually a cartoon villain, she just has a grudge against Sarah and Joyce (the latter for an extremely good reason). It’s ok for her to be right sometimes.
It’s fine for her to be right sometimes, but when the manipulative antagonist with a grudge against the main character is critiquing that main character, it’s easy to pass that off as just part of the grudge.
Good logic mostly.
I don’t think Raidah will out them to the school. ( Or do it in a ways that gets her hands dirty)
But she’s a social climber. She’s expressed interest in Carlas case and her parents.
I think she could out them to Carlas parents as protesters.
What exactly are Carla’s parents supposed to do with that information
I don’t think Carla’s parents would care, and are probably too busy to be taking calls from rando college students anyway.
No one’s mentioned that Daisy’s coverage of the protest is kinda fucked? Sure, it wasn’t the best place to be making out, but on its own that’s pretty harmless. Who the eff, on the other hand, photographs a couple kissing and puts it on the front page for its protest reporting? Daisy’s horniness was a fun joke, but now it’s clear she’s got limited journalistic integrity and I’d expect there to be calls for her removal.
There was a whole thing about it in yesterday’s comment section
Honestly I wonder if Raidah will have more of an issue with Daisy than Joyce and Dorothy here
Yeah she doesnt like Joyce or Dorothy but they aren’t the ones that made the decision to be front page news
there has been a debate on the ick factor of daisy’s editorial choices since we’ve seen the front page.
It appears I should have been more specific: no one *in-universe* has mentioned it (on-panel, anyway). I make zero claims about what has been discussed in comments!
There was a preview panel a while ago of Daisy with someone off panel shouting her name that was, pre-Willis reevaluating some things, set for yesterday
I imagine thats still coming in the near future
ahh then yes maybe we get that from someone soon
honestly i think it would be funny if walky was the one to point out daisy’s fauxpaus
I mean. I imagine that is indeed going to be a topic of conversation between these two tomorrow.
(But also this is true to life, “who the fuck” reporters do in fact put photos of kissing couples at protests front and center.)
With respect…you actually think anyone cares about the journalistic integrity of the school newspaper?
Honestly? Yeah, I think if we’re trying to be true to life at all, the Student Media Publication Board (which among other people includes a professor and an assistant dean from IU’s journalism school over in the real-world this is based on) probably does care quite a bit about the journalistic integrity of the student newspaper.
Right. Student newspapers are meant to help cultivate the talents of the next generation of journalists, and that includes holding them to journalistic ethical standards, so that they can learn them.
Daisy has the distinction of being the MOST Flanderized character in the comic (a comic which includes Mary, among others), so yeah, I’m not surprised in the slightest!
Remember that one time that Joyce submitted her comic and Daisy had, like, four entire strips where she acted like a real human being and even gave Joyce some decent editorial feedback?
And then Walky showed up and Daisy said “your shirt is damp, OMG MAYBE A *WOMAN* LICKED IT”
What I’m saying is that expecting anything except the horniest possible choice from Daisy is a mistake
Wouldn’t be the worst thing to boot her from the comic over this. Not like it’s hurting for lesbian rep anymore.
There are three (four?) lesbian characters of any prominence in the strip, and only one of them gets any regular screen time. Maybe instead make Daisy an actual character and give her MORE to do instead of further paring down the strip’s lesbian representation?
How about we lose Daisy, but to make up for it we get twice as much Leslie?
(How is the character literally named “Les Bean” the one who’s not a one-note caricature?)
She also seemed pretty humanized in the strips where she went on a date with Ruth, but she’s slipped back into the background since then.
Yep, that and her thing with Joyce are the closest Daisy has come to being an actual character.
A bunch of people have mentioned it in the comments of the last few strips.
“no one” except the ongoing discussion that’s occurred daily since it came up, sure
maybe you shouldn’t be sucking face at a public event that’s being very much covered from lots of angles by the media AND crawling with cops if you didn’t want to be outed. not exactly a private spot
Once again, incidents like that have happened two or three times before during huge, world-newsworthy protests all across the globe; and every single news organization that had access to pictures like that ran them into the dirt making use of them.
Literally every news editor on the planet not working for the Vatican News Service would have run with that photo as fast as they possibly could.
thi is unfortunately true, as it will move papers and thats their job. is it icky on many levels yeah, but it is also true that when in a public place at a public event, with known media present, one has inherently waived the right to anonymity by not wearing a mask.
As much as Raidah is…*absolutely not* a good person, her reaction of angry/confused/’what is even happening’ when you see a picture of the person who blew up her relationship the prior semester being horny for her ex BF now on a front page passionately making out with another girl is a valid response.
Oh hey that’s right, I think Raidah still thinks Joyce is a homophobe right?
This must be REALLY confusing xD
Oh wow this could be a REAL interesting way for her to find out Jennifer is homophobic.
Billie is a represser but she’s not outwardly homophobic.
Internalized homo/biphobia. As she put it before the timeskip, “I’m not bi, I’m… I don’t want to say normal, that’s awful.”
She has Feelings, but she knows they’re shitty feelings when she has to say them out loud. She wouldn’t react like that.
Much more likely that she connects it to the “advice” she gave Joyce and says “oh they’re not necessarily bi, you can makeout sometimes and still be regular best friends”.
Being around Alice again seems to be weaning her off that perspective a little bit:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/nobigdeal/
So who knows!
She does have to deal with that repression though.
Good callout! With everything ELSE going on I completely forgot that strip!
Raidah spends entirely too much time invested in other people’s lives that don’t care about her. She should be spending this energy getting some real friends and hobbies instead. I’m serious. I wish her the best because her current status quo on the surface looks kind of sad. Spiting Sarah, Joyce, and possibly Dorothy by extension gets her nothing. She’s better off trying to join them if she actually wants to ruin them because that friend group is great at hurting each other as shown. Please Raidah, find some real people to hang with.
Well as we see when Jennifer talked about Alice she seems genuinely confused about the concept of being friends with someone without any sort of possible social benefits.
to raidah, all human interactionis taken with the exclusive purpose of generating wealth, social equity, or personal gain. any and all other interactions are purposeless and make no sense to her
Oh good. Raidah found out. This will end well.
She already knew, they told her. Which is why she probably recognized them so quickly
We think Raidah and Asma hangout? This conversation feels slightly more familiar than the standard service/patron dynamic. It feels like they at least know each other on a named basis. I’ve been running on the idea Raidah doesn’t really have friends anymore but Asma would be a nice upgrade for her.
If they both go to the same mosque, then perhaps they’ve seen each other there and talked. But I don’t think we’ve seen Asma enough to know who she’s friends with at this point.
Do we even know which building Raidah lives in? If here, and if she gets packages…
Seems like it would be weird to have her working in a building she doesn’t live in, but my college didn’t have front desks in the dorms, so I can’t really say for sure.
When I went to a big state school, the dorm front-desk workers were all generally recruited from the same dorm area, but not necessarily the same building. (our dorms were divided into approximately five regions that all shared a dining hall but had individual front desks per building, of which there were 5-16(!) in a cluster)
Okay, I posted too fast. “Our wing’s missing them” can very well mean Raidah’s in this building.
I am curious what Raidah is most surprised about here, is she surprised by the fact that Dorothy and Joyce were actually in the thick of the protest? Or perhaps she is more reacting to how paper is making Dorothy and Joyce kissing the center focus of the protest rather than the actual issue it was about?
Given that it’s Raidah, she probably thinks this was some master plan concocted by Joyce to get more popular.
That hadn’t occured to me, but now I’m on board with Raidah maybe being jealous for not plotting it first.
I think she’s bullshit they did exactly as she suggested white girls centered themselves detracting from the goals
given how transactionally we have seen raidah view life as being i highly doubt any of her rage is related to them diverting attention from the protest. i cannot see her viewing the protest or participating in it as a act beneficial to advancing ones career and social status, and thus her caring about it
Common Asma W, even if we have to have it while she’s next to this jerk
Theory: Raidah is gonna think Jennifer did the story, simply because Jennifer is currently not doing what Raidah wants and based on no other evidence.
That would be funny if Jennifer did
I thought she initially did, too, but Jennifer is intensely (internalized) homophobic when it comes to bisexuality. She would NOT write that headline.
Article writers very rarely write their own headlines, as the headline depends a lot on thing like the layout of the page, which the writer can’t know in advance
She’s looking at the paper. She can see who wrote it.
Sudden realization: Joyce and Dorothy only made the front page because the editor is terminally horny
I’m going to go way out on a limb and assume that you don’t spend much time reading the comment section.
I totally did not look at the tags to remember Asma’s name, what are you talking about
Now would it be funny but fucked up or fucked up but funny if Raidah also didn’t know Asma’s name?
Anyway, funny payoff.
Why would she expect them to? They’re not even casual acquaintances.
Yes yes yes! The delicious Asma sarcasm, I like it.
Also about time, we get it, Raidah is ambitious and snobbish, now show us were she does all the good stuff, the community organizing, the volunteering at the local legal clinic!
I, don’t get why that is necessary? Like if that’s where you expect it to go assume you be disappointed.
I’m fully prepared for the writer to take this wherever they please.
I’d just like to see something about Raidah that isn’t “mean girl” because I enjoy three dimensional antagonists.
I don’t know about necessary, it’s just something I’d like to see *shrug*
Who knows, maybe even some new insights about the Sarah/Dana thing, where we suddenly understand better how she constructed her image of Sarah as a heartless narc? I’d be interested.
But then I’m also interested in many other arcs, so I’ll happily take what I’m given
i can see her as a three demensional villain as it is, as i have known people in real life for whom this is all they are and the lens they view life through. she isnt far from a former co-worker who viewed life as an outright no hold barred no rules truly apply competition, that can only be won by devoting every consious moment to the acquisition of wealth power and status, and to not do so is to deny the truth of the world.
he actually said once that if it came to it he would 100% disadvantage his own family to persue his personal success, even if it meant actively undermining his child.
This strip is very light on nuanced antagonists (it’s not a particular creative strength of Willis’ to be fair), but I think Raidah has a lot of potential.
is kissing a war crime
way to see the domino effect in action… like, what’s up soon, Jennifer lamenting that Dorothy didn’t take pics of Amazi-Girl? or taking back her assumptions about Dorothy’s orientation? Danny?
Radah does not know how to process this or what to make of it.
Oh, this is going to be a weird sort of vindication for Raidah. She was already asking if they were happy with the attention they received for going to the protest. This is a whole ‘nother level of attention. Now the question is how it will actually play out from here. Raidah is…Raidah, but then again maybe this will make her reevaluate Dorothy and Joyce is she sees them freaking out. Or, she’ll just be smug in her “correct” assessment about white freshman.
Either way: Get ’em, Asma, get ’em.
Iiiiiiiiii
I so need tomorrow’s update…
Are you aware you can get tomorrow’s update?
so something not mentioned yet… Y’all remember when Raidiah blames Sara for reporting her close friend’s rule breaking that led to said friend leaving the college (and remembering that she refuses to believe that Sarah only reported the problem because said friend was spiraling and needed an intervention to save her life and only sees it as Sarah being vindictive)?
well golly gee wouldn’t it suck if Radiah learned that someone who was very close to Sarah wound up in a situation where she was caught doing something that if reported to the campus administration could very well get said person close to Sarah expelled for breaking rules and would be a perfect opertunity for blackmail or revenge?
yeah…. That would really suck wouldn’t it?
What rule? Being at the protest? Kissing? Being bisexual? Being in the student newspaper?
I mean bear in mind that Joyce was flat out told that things were going to get bad at the protests with police breaking up the thing and she ran the risk of getting in a lot of trouble if she was there since it’s very likely the protest is going to be called a “riot” considering a girl at the protest was running around fighting cops. If it does get branded a riot that would look very bad for any known student participants
I assumed she was going to get them busted for stealing newspapers.
Raidah isn’t really blaming Sarah for reporting on her roommate’s rule-breaking, it was more that she told on her parents that said roommate was going through a mental breakdown featuring drug addiction, something that Raidah thought wasn’t out of control and feels Sarah overreacted to.
Like, I don’t even Raidah really cares about the rule-breaking aspect of it, or things Sarah cares all that much about that factor. Its not like Raidah’s called Sarah a narc or anything, she’s not *that* kind of backstabber.
accept raidah felt the drug spiral wasnt even something to worry about, she was willing to let her “friend” OD and die because the event would be usable for social advancement and networking. in the strips where raidahsarah rehash everything i get the vibe raidah saw her friends spiral as a means to get closer the that friend parents and their proffesional circle,it always came off to me that she felt she was robbed of an easy social climbing win. (i also got the vibe that she had hoped fornher friend to commit suicide so she could be performative at the funeral and use it to climb further.)
That wasn’t really a defense of Raidah or saying that she did nothing wrong or anything, my point is just that Raidah’s objection to Sarah’s actions isn’t about Sarah being a narc or anything, like the person I was replying to seemed to be suggesting.
Her friend was in a hell of a spiral but to my knowledge was only using weed. Last I checked you could not od and die from weed. You can wind up dizzy, throwing up, paranoid, but I have never heard of someone dying of too much weed unless you count situations involving driving while high.
So you’re saying the way for her to get the pettiest of revenge is to contact a parent of Dorothy and/or Joyce.
There isn’t anything to report to the administration. Everything she knows about it, she learned from the paper. Which the administration also has access to.
Theoretically, she can identify the two of them, which the paper hopefully didn’t.
Even if she did, there’s not going to be a lot of initiative on the part of either the campus administration or the police to go after two white girls who left the protest soon after it was declared an illegal demonstration.
Raidah, in this moment, is having the last piece of the Exodia on hands.
(Or C’thun, if we’re talking about hearthstone)
It will be funny to see the Reddit people having to agree with Raidah.
Not exactly sure what Raidah is capable of doing with this
Origami?
How villainous!
Judging the ships in the poll:
Walky/Joe: Just a weird mismatch. Even if you set aside the canonical sexual orientations, there’s just no conflict there. 1/10.
Sarah/Raidah: The most epic of hatefucks. So much hatefucking. There’s just real passion behind their mutual loathing. Oddly, this ship shoots past a 10/10 and descends, just because of how much raw emotion is involved. 7/10.
Sal/Amazigirl: …honestly, the only thing that makes this anything but wholesome is that Danny is the bestest boy. 2/10
Roz/Mary: Pure, uncut toxicity. The kind that isn’t even interesting. It’s kinda like Walky/Joe, but inverted, where there’s not much real passion but so much goddamn mutual loathing that it just spoils the whole thing.
Dorothy/Jennifer: …feels kinda random, honestly. There’s no obvious red flags, but there’s no obvious pain points either. Its the sort of thing that makes no sense now, but honestly could maybe work in the end. 3/10.
Not just that Danny is the bestest boy, but also that he’s Amazi-Girl’s ex.
The pain point is that Dorothy doesn’t like Billie lol
Of course, Billie is kind of into that…
Yep. She’s twice expressed feeling kind of attracted to Dorothy when Dorothy was getting in her face. (Ruth did too, lol.)
It’s honestly not that random!
Like, it would be a little bit hatefucky, though if that’s what you want from a ship, Sarah and Raidah is the clear winner.
(Mary/Roz is my vote for cursed. I don’t think they’ve even interacted enough on panel for it to appeal to folks who like belligerent sexual tension! They’re just very opposed to each other ideologically! It’s not personal enough, on-panel. Might as well set Roz up with any random conservative douchebag.)
So to recap: Thursday morning (1 Mar 25) Joe hits Dorothy with “Are you into Joyce” question.
Friday evening Joyce and Dorothy almost kiss.
Friday midnight Joe and Joyce big date and happy midnight grope.
Saturday morning Joyce and Dorothy can’t “do laundry”.
Saturday late afternoon Joyc and Dorothy big kiss.
Saturday evening Joyce attempts to cancel Joe, gets blanket, oral thank you.
Sunday morning totally outed by newspaper, Joe and Walky canceled, dealing with damage control.
Total four days comic time (29 Aug 25)
Manic Depressives don’t change channels that fast. 🙂
Well, Joe hasn’t been definitively cancelled, and Walky’s cancelling was performed by Joyce, not Dorothy.
And so doesn’t count.
Perhaps I condense too much. I’m just amazed that four webcomic days produces 6 months of strips. 😀
And true, Walky’s contract def canceled, but Joe is negotiating for an extension. Hoping for a happy ending, I’m a fan of Joe’s reformation.
Walky and Joe have history!!! They’ve been man-married! Joe was NOT a supportive husband to Walky!
*coughcough* oh crap. Joyce and Joe were initially paired, and she left Joe, paired instead with Dorothy, shoving Walky out to wind up with Joe. As the prophecy foretold!
Anyways… Roz and Mary could make sense in one way: in a dom/sub BDSM-style relationship. Especially as Roz, the ever-educating sexpert, could take it as an opportunity to take Mary down a peg and potentially make life more bearable for everyone else, and Mary would be a mass of hormones fighting internalized shame that she’d only be able to do it if she wasn’t already being punished in some way.
Awww yeah it’s my favorite awful girl Raidah 😀
Gotta love that Asma snark
Yes more Asma. Glad to see she seems to be fine and dishing out the snark. That is one off my list.
wow, not a third, not half. an entire fuck.
Watch it turn out that Raidah and Asma are cousins or childhood friends and it utterly throws people for a loop that she has a human side.
Sje have a very human side, everything she does is pretty human, it’s just human doesn’t equal good.
Sadly it feels that this DoA comments section has become too toxic and I need to move on.
I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety, and several prominent posters here make me feel like shit. There are nice people here, but it only takes a few who feel no qualms about ad hominem attacks to ruin my day (at minimum).
When you lash out at people, no matter how justified and righteous you feel, you can hurt somebody very badly and cause self destructive thoughts to surface.
Be kinder to strangers, it costs you nothing and may save a life.
*gives Adeptus a Welsh Corgi pic*
https://cdn.britannica.com/80/232780-050-404D6708/Pembroke-welsh-corgi-dog.jpg
take your time
Be good to yourself, and remember there are many people out here that care.
Thanks everyone. I may be back later.
Raidah, were you at the protest? Were you contributing in any way?
As I said last time Raidah showed up and people decided to take this line, there are any number of legitimate reasons for Raidah to not have been at the protest, and the protest is not the sole means of support one can show to a people struggling against genocidal violence.
(Apropos of nothing donate to a Palestinian fundraiser today!)
Watch Willis troll the fandom by revealing she organized the protest.
Well, she was gatekeeping the purity of at least two people there.
Every time Raidah shows up I’m reminded that half of this comment section does not understand her even a little bit and just views her as a cardboard cutout of a high school mean girl.
No, she is an opportunistic social climber who has no use for you if you don’t contribute to her looking good.
Honestly, I think this isn’t entirely true, but it’s not entirely false, either—Raidah’s a more multifaceted villain-figure than, like, Mary, who is just your basic fashy jackass.
Raidah strikes me as someone I’ve seen a lot of online, actually—someone who has good beliefs, like genuinely good ones, and wants to do good things, BUT is simultaneously very self-aggrandizing, vindictive, and has rationalized that retribution is justice, actually.
Hence why, despite probably knowing on some level that Sarah acted at least partially out of reasonable self-preservation, she organized (and continues to organize) a year-and-change-long harassment campaign against Sarah that’s legitimately traumatized the poor girl—Sarah wronged her friend and took away her autonomy, so therefore Sarah is Bad, so therefore harassment is justice!
This extends to her social-climbing and mercenary-assed attitude towards career and social hierarchy shit. I have no doubt she has as good of intentions as Dorothy, but she’s lost in the sauce of being The Best and Most Important Person in the Room.
I mean there’s also the layer that Raidah is a woman of color and a Muslim, axes of social marginalization that certainly inform her striving tendencies. It’s no excuse for how she treats people, Sarah in particular, but it does inform her relentless pursuit of networking and connections – she has to work twice as hard for half of what most people get, and especially in her chosen field who you know is at least as important as what you know.
Raidah has way more of my pity than contempt at this point. She has nothing going on. This strip encapsulates everything that her character is these days which is walking the halls alone between campus reacting to things more interesting characters are doing. She’s become isolated as a character because of intersecting with the main group and her own nature. They’ve ruined her relationship and taken the interesting characters as a result. Even her little group she had at the start of the winter arc is splintered out to greener pastures because she failed them as a genuine friend when needed. Her early friends Chan and Char seem to have been quietly phased out. (They were pretty terrible anyway) There’s just Raidah and Carl the guy whose most notable trait is being bland and unnoticed.
So Raidah apparently now just studies and walks around. It’s implied she’s all about connections and social climbing but ironically everyone else is better at it and has more connections by just being real friends. It’s very sad.
I mean she kicked them out rather than the reverse. She’s a shitty friend but is the queen bee.
Except she has no real power because Walky, Jennifer, and Asher don’t care about her group or her approval.
Billie did care, but Raidah carelessly burnt that bridge when Billie tried to get her help with Alice.
It’s true that Raidah’s core flaw is that she sabotages herself and her ambitions by refusing to approach situations with genuine empathy.
Oh, yeah, they absolutely do inform her striving tendencies 100%.
She’s actually, ironically, not so different from Dorothy; a shadowy mirror held up to her, kind of, both in her ambition and drive to be taken seriously…
AND in her being trapped in trying to use the master’s tools to tear down the master’s house. Like, as much as it feels good, Raidah, going after Problematic White Girl, Joyce Brown, or mounting a harassment campaign against Sarah for narcing on Dana, these things are not going to change the status quo that you despise—they are firmly within its orbit! In trying to gain power to change things, Raidah has become obsessed with the act of gaining said power.
I said on Patreon when Raidah showed up scolding Joyce and Dorothy, correctly, for their “participation” in the protest that it was pretty silly to talk about it due to her most lasting legacy being traumatizing a Black woman for attempting what was, really, self-preservation, but honestly I was barking up the wrong tree: the REAL irony/tragedy of Raidah is that even as she rightfully excoriates Joyce and Dorothy for their nonsense, she is currently engaged in a project to curry favor with Dean McHenry. The same Dean McHenry involved, intimately, in where IU funding goes.
So yeah! The parallels are pretty juicy, I think.
(Also when I say she’s a villain take it with a grain of salt. A big one. She’s nineteen, she’s allowed to be as stupid and shitty just like the protagonists are. I think of her as a villain mostly because she *trends* towards cruelty in a long and measurable arc.)
(Addendum: I’m sure Raidah might believe that by currying favor with the Dean now she can push out Sarah first, THEN lobby him to stop funding genocide.
I think it is also patently obvious her chances are slim on one of those ideas, absolutely nonexistent on the other. Dean McHenry probably would not act to stop funding the genocide if she was his own child, for various reasons. Again: master’s tools, master’s house.)
Sarah also has to work twice as hard for half of what most people get. You don’t see her pulling Raidah’s bullshit. You say it’s no excuse, but I also fail to see how it’s any sort of mitigating factor in her being a terrible human being.
And I thought her being a terrible human being wouldn’t even come up since this is one of the few recent instances of her not being actively terrible.
It most especially doesn’t provide any mitigating factor to her treatment of Dina.
I would venture to say, and I think Dot may have meant, that it’s not a *mitigating* factor so much as it is just the root of her poisoned tree, as it were. Raidah strives because she’s disadvantaged in the USA’s terrible corrupt society, and she’s rightfully angry at that, she wants to affect bedrock change, BUT the way she thinks she can accomplish that, due to mental gymnastics and cognitive dissonance, is through vindictive acts of retribution against “bad people”.
As stated above, it’s not all that different from Dorothy’s prior pie-in-the-sky ideal of “If I can just master the reins of this tottering democracy, I can fix its many horrific problems! It won’t eat me alive! Sure, it’s feasted on a thousand progressive young white moderates before me, but I’m built different!”
Dorothy, though, has immense empathy and the power to see that these problems are systemic in nature, whereas Raidah has cut off her empathy and thinks that systemic problems can be solved by bullying the right targets.
So ironically, despite being the one who shattered Dorothy’s ideals, Raidah has even bigger blinders on about how shortsighted and crappy her own ideals are.
And yeah, her treatment of Dina exposes just how lost Raidah is without knowing it—she’d probably say if asked that she’s the farthest thing from ableist! She cut off Char and destroyed him for that moment of ableism, she’d never associate with that in public or any more than she had to! How dare you? She was unfailingly polite! Etc.
But, of course, she’s wrong, and we know differently.
Where did I say it was a mitigating factor?
Then why does it matter? She’s got a reason for being a shitty person (despite other people with similar reasons not behaving the same shitty way), so what? So does Robin, so does Mary, so does Carol, so do even worse people in the comic. If someone dosen’t have a reason to behave the way they do that’s just poor character writing.
You started this off by saying people just don’t understand her as if we would think she was less shitty if we did.
The people who hate her don’t hate her because we don’t understand why she behaves the way she does, we hate her because of her behaviours and unlike anyone else in the comic we’re expected to have any empathy or sympathy for she’s taken no action, not even the start of a misguided half baked attempt like Joe handing out donuts post list leak, at being less of a shitty person.
There are nuanced elements of Raidah, but that’s not what Willis has chosen to make the focal point of how she interacts with the main cast and the story. Mostly Raidah plays the role of Mean Girl Queen Bee: She bullies Sarah and continues to do what she can to drive away any friends that Sarah makes (most recently trying to get Billie, Walky, and Lucy to ditch Sarah’s friend group). She was condescending to Dina. She manipulates and tries to use characters so she can social climb. She casually takes digs at Dorothy whenever she sees her. Her three featured friends in her social circle were Chan and Char (who were both notably major jerkass bullies to Dina), and Carl, who has been here the whole time and whose personality is “Dana’s ex-boyfriend who also dislikes Sarah.”
It’s been seven years real-time since Raidah was involved in an arc where she was more than just the mean girl (when Joyce was gunning for Raidah’s relationship with Jacob). If a lot of readers see her as one-dimensional, well, that’s on the author to do more with her.
I would love for Willis to do more with her and have in fact asked for this!
I feel like some of Raidah’s old characterization conflicts with her more recent depictions. Like the terrible time she condescended to Dina while her friend threw out “retard” in the derogatory. I think that’s why they’re gone and modern Raidah I think would be disgusted by her past behavior. Sure Raidah’s a mean girl but belittling the neurodivergent, minority girl, doesn’t gel with her current politics, beliefs, and behavior, unless she’s a poser on top of everything else? I’d like to see a moment where she reconciles with Dina for that.
Yeah to a certain extent I kind of write that off as basically early characterization where the character was still soft and foldable.
I’m not really sure how it conflicts.
And personally I assume Chaz and Char aren’t really gone, just in the background because they weren’t goof enough at faking it in front of Jennifer.
I don’t know. I’m a little 50/50 on my analysis now. I went archive diving for evidence and it’s a bit tough for me to decipher the difference between post and pre timeskip Raidah. I did find the moment where she went kinda mask off on Joyce when Jacob dumped her.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/bubblebrained/
Maybe that’s who she really is, but post timeskip Raidah seems a little more ….I don’t know, intelligent? Aware of the struggles of marginalized people at least enough to weaponize guilt against overly privileged white women. That doesn’t seem like the kind of woman that would also infantilize people on the spectrum. Buuuut maybe Raidah’s just better at faking it now.
Thing is a lot of people don’t really think of the mentally disabled as a “marginalized people”.
I don’t really see an contraction, people can have good politics and believe in good things and still be condescending towards disabled people. Especially if they think they are being kind.
I support this level of pettiness, Asma. Well done. They *could* care more.
Honestly, fair Asma
I would like to call attention to how Asma’s new pink hijab is cute as fuck.
i would like to posit asma is cute as fuck period, and the new hijab is awesome
I change my viewpoint to this. Yes. Correct.
Re:poll, JenniDot sleeper agents now is our time (all 6 of us)
oooooh are we going to remake “nothing but Trouble” with dot as julia roberts and billifer as nick nolte?!
You love to see the JenniDot propaganda working!
https://bsky.app/profile/vaporlight.bsky.social/post/3lxify2vz4c2k
This post from the tail end of yesterday’s comments (credit to Nadamás) reminds me that on a Patreon commentary whim I threw together a bunch of Stand names and stats for DOA characters, because I have Jojo’s Bizarre Brainrot in a terminal way
If there is any interest I will throw them up here as well! I don’t know if anyone is Jojopilled like my dumb ass though, so leave a comment if you want to see it
Do it. 🔪
Taffy I hope you see this. I worked harder on it than I would care to admit!
Hey i hot reposted! I am finally successful! (Thanks you yho, nobody saw that comment)
I took a post-work nap, but Taffy asked for it and I am gonna deliver! Here we go! I fiddled with the stats some vs. Patreon, but oh well!
「MISERY BUSINESS」
STAND MASTER: Joyce Brown
STAND TYPE: Close-Range, Natural Humanoid
Destructive Power: C
Speed: A
Range: B
Stamina: C
Precision: D
Developmental Potential: B
Stand Ability: Joyce’s Stand obviously allows for her pinpoint teleportation to the “most important person” she has mentally designated, as has been observed in the comic—as she’s probably our Jojo equivalent I imagine it also has rush attack capacity and uncommon strength, a la 「STONE FREE」or 「STAR PLATINUM」from JJBA canon.
* * *
「RASPBERRY SWIRL」
STAND MASTER: Rebecca McIntyre
STAND TYPE: Long-Range, Reconnaissance, Artificial Humanoid
Destructive Power: C
Speed: B
Range: A
Stamina: B
Precision: C
Developmental Potential: A
Stand Ability: I will level with y’all, I actively conceived of this as “femme Hierophant Green but in lesbian flag colors and it probably uses garnets instead of emeralds. There is a powerful vibe between Becky and both Kakyoin Noriaki and Kakyoin Ryoko in my brain. I gave this one a way better learning stat though because Becky is hungry for knowledge.
* * *
「WOMANIZER」
STAND MASTER: Joseph Rosenthal
STAND TYPE: Automatic, Artificial Humanoid, Foresight
Destructive Power: C
Speed: D
Range: A
Stamina: A
Precision: E
Developmental Potential: B
Stand Ability: First and foremost, this Stand’s ability is a seductive aura and a “powerful sexual kindness”; it is also capable of reading the future for what is the most wingman-like action possible. Like in the cases of Polnareff or Okuyasu, it was formerly used for evil, but since reforming Joe strictly deploys his Stand in the name of virtue.
* * *
「THE COUP」
STAND MASTER: Dorothy Keener
STAND TYPE: Bound/Materialized, Phenomenon
Destructive Power: ?
Speed: C
Range: ∅
Stamina: B
Precision: A
Developmental Potential: ∞
Stand Ability: I’m not quite totally sure on this one. I joked on Patreon that it’d be time stop as long as she Blair Witches in the corner, but I think that’s not quite right and a little too jokey. Since I think the Stand is probably her Fitbit, I could actually see it being localized time alteration that synchronizes with her chosen partner/her emotions—playing on both her need for companionship and desire to control a situation. She’s bad at both, but her potential…!
* * *
「BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN」
STAND MASTER: David Walkerton
STAND TYPE: Automatic, Phenomenon
Destructive Power: ∅
Speed: ?
Range: A
Stamina: A
Precision: D
Developmental Potential: C
Stand Ability: This one I actually have a pretty tight concept for! Basically, it’s an automatic Stand that gives Walky incredible rizz and good luck on his current hyperfixation! Unfortunately when the hyperfixation wanes, the “spell” is broken and the Stand deactivates automatically. Very frustrating to its user! Might manifest in the form of doodles like Walky used to do on math worksheets?
* * *
「WALK THE DINOSAUR」
STAND MASTER: Dina Saruyama
STAND TYPE: Range Irrelevant, Natural Non-Humanoid
Destructive Power: A
Speed: A
Range: ∅
Stamina: A
Precision: ∅
Developmental Potential: D
Stand Ability: The powers of 「WALK THE DINOSAUR」are twofold—one, it, which appears as a feathered, beautiful, and deadly specimen of Utahraptor ostrommaysi whose plumage is translucent and shimmering, grants its mistress the claws, teeth, and incredible destructive force of that prehistoric predator; two, it instantly causes Dina to disappear from the perception of any ‘authority figure’ or ‘impediment’, allowing her perfect camouflage.
* * *
「FINE ART」
STAND MASTERS: Amber O’Malley/Amazi-Girl Justice O’Malley
STAND TYPE: Close-Range/Range Irrelevant, Natural Humanoid, Bound/Materialized, Reconnaissance
Destructive Power: A
Speed: B
Range: D
Stamina: A
Precision: C
Developmental Potential: D
Stand Ability: I feel like this one’s kind of a conceptual mix between essentially a version of the Amazi-Girl suit and King Crimson—with the added twist that unlike the weird power dynamics (and the stupid physical transformation) of Doppio and Diavolo, both alters CAN access the Stand but it comes more naturally to AG. It allows for superhuman strength, health regeneration, incredibly forceful blows more like DIO’s 「THE WORLD」than an average heroic Stand. Ominous, but a force ultimately for good.
* * *
「JAGGED LITTLE PILL」
STAND MASTER: Ruth Lessick
STAND TYPE: Automatic, Artificial Non-Humanoid/Phenomenon
Destructive Power: ∞
Speed: A
Range: ∅
Stamina: ∅
Precision: A
Developmental Potential: D
Stand Ability: A Stand that’s as destructive to its mistress as its enemies—this demonic little fucker feeds on Ruth’s depression and self-hatred to emit a powerful vibration frequency that liquifies the bones of its targets within their bodies. It seems especially targeted against the femurs. Unfortunately, it rampages out of control quickly and causes bone growths to shoot out of Ruth, and is easily fatal if overused.
I know very little about jojo yet i still love this.
I especially like Dina’s and Ruth. Wish there was slightly more details on Dorothy and Walky tho.
Walky’s concept is me basically taking his “gifted kid” ADHD (which I also have in spades haha) and making is a supernatural luck power—as long as he can maintain focus on a goal his pathway is assured, fate will arrange things for him. But the problem/weakness is his brain naturally loses focus and what he thought was easy quickly becomes a huge trial when his Stand isn’t activated! His arc in Jojo’s would probably be learning how to synchronize his Stand use with alternative strengths.
Dorothy’s I have to admit I don’t have as solid a concept for, I struggled with what exactly its powerset would be. I just think like, she has really high potential especially now that she’s in her “break the system” era.
I dig it. Some of them could be pretty dangerous, but they’re all fun.
Excellent! That’s what I was going for. (I also had a lot of fun lining up musical references because that’s 75% of the joy of Stand design in the first place, is going “what absurd song/album/band name can I attach to this powerset/little guy and have it make sense, kind of?”)
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽💯
*plays “il vento d’oro” on hacked muzak*
willis i hate to tell you re: the new poll but i’m literally rooting for sal/amazi-girl, roz/mary and sarah/raidah are pretty good, and walky/joe and dorothy/jennifer are solid. i voted dorothy/jennifer just bc it’d be odd to happen after all the dorothy/joyce buildup and satisfaction but all of these ship options are good lmao
also rooting for sal/amazi-girl(/danny?) (& sal/amber tbh), but roz deserves better than mary. walky/joe & dorothy/jennifer have potential but i love sarah too much to subject her to raidah even though it’s always theoretically interesting to do friends to enemies to lovers.
y’know, the logic of trying to clear out all the papers before Becky has a chance to see them instead of just….y’know, seeking Becky down and intercepting? it eludes me
also why 48% of y’all saying Roz/Mary is a cursed ship? that’s like the most basic ass enemies to lovers dynamic that could exist
or is it cursed because we all know that it would only ever get to exist as a oneshot and never a full serialization?
All of the options are about as cursed as two people saying the same thing at the same time and saying “Jinx!”. It’s just that Roz and Mary have the highest potential for homophobic slurs being used during sex, that’s what tips the scales for me.
ah, well if toxic yuri is being consider cursed, then yea, I suppose that would seal the deal. those two would make for some of the most toxic yuri I’ve yet seen
Yes, it makes more logical sense to just talk to Becky instead of trying a wacky hijinks plan.
…Dorothy isn’t exactly operating in a logical mindset, she’s panicking and trying to avoid a conversation she’s assuming will be incredibly difficult and heart-rending.
Also the paper probably has an online version so…
Any Mary ship is a cursed ship because Mary is thoroughly *awful*.
roz x mary has the highest potential for hate crimes, so that’s why it’s my vote
jeez that sounds really bad out of context
RAIDAH, JUST WHO I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SEE.
Please finally be the source of some legitimate drama in this arc
“Raidah, if this paper fall into thy hand, revolve.”
Maybe it’s just me, but ‘m not sure Raidah knowing would affect much. Is there anything that Raidah would do about it that Dorothy and Joyce won’t do by sneaking into a closet to make out, only to realize they stepped into the main administration conference room while the Dean was on a video call with Joyce’s parents?
We’re getting close to a trend here
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/thatsnew/
I’m here for the recurring gag of Raidah being shown constant evidence that she’s not some genius about The Way People Are and never internalizing that idea.
Literally everybody else they know will be like “Yeah, that tracks” and she’ll be all “whaaaaaa?”
the strip that made me my gravi!
hmm… is asma just being deservedly snarky or is she also deliberately not naming people who were at the protest
cant it be both?
Could also be avoiding saying “oh yeah I was there when it happened”. Raidah would set off my cop alarm.
Raidah is a busybody but she’s very explicitly not a narc.
similar energy between those things
The underlying assumption here is that she’s not a hypocrite and I am skeptical.
i’m glad someone’s pissed at daisy for this headline. it’s a great photo and all but for the love of fuck is it insensitive
And it hasn’t got a lot to do with the protest
It feels like the DoA universe is contorting around these two and yet, Asma at least feels immune to the distortion and realizes that… shit is fucky when a newspaper cares more about gossip than police gassing and beating students.
Gods, I really hope Dorothy and Raidah blow up at each other. It feels like both of them need someone to get in their face about stuff, and this is a tense enough moment for it to happen.
Raidah being mad at the comic plot is an a win-win
She’s not wrong. But let her stew.
Every time she’s pulled mean girl stuff on Sarah, Billy , Joyce or Dorothy if backfired on her. Her attempt to suck up to Walky broke up her group, got Sarah a new bf.
She condescended to Dorothy about war crimes and now here we are.
Asma has a massive point.